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LIBRARY  OF  PRINCEPI 


AUG  2  7  2003 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


BV4571  .L36  1905 
Lamb,  M.  T. ,  (Martin 
1838-1912. 
Child  and  God  / 

Thomas ) 

THE  CHILD 
AMD    GOD 


merican  Baptist  Publication  Society 


"-38 


>0«5CtiplI 


\J^^^  xt^ 


Suffer  little  children,  and  forbid  them  not,  to  come  unto 

ME;    for  of  such   IS  THE   KINGDOM  OF   HEAVEN."— Ma«.  ig  :  14. 


^ 


€bild  and  m 


BY 

Rev.  m.  c'caitib 

Author  of"  The  Mormons  and  Their  Bible  ' 

"  Every  Creature  " 

"Success  in  Sou!  Winning" 

"  Heredity,"  etc. 


PHILADELPHIA 

American  Baptist  Publication  Society 

1420  Chestnut  Street 


^»J4>J4>J4^>J'>J4>J<>J< 


Copyright  1905 
M.  T.  LAMB 

Published  April,  1905 


jfrom  tbc  iprcss  of  tbc 
Hmcrlcan  JBaptiet  publication  Society 


PREFACE 


While  the  following  treatise  was  written  pri- 
marily in  the  interests  of  the  homeless  and  outcast 
child,  the  author  has  kept  constantly  in  view  chil- 
dren universally,  of  whom  the  majority  have  no 
Christian  training,  while  the  remainder,  though  in 
professedly  Christian  homes,  are  too  seldom  re- 
garded as  a  sacred  trust  from  God.  It  is  exceedingly 
sad  to  contemplate  the  seeming  carelessness  of  so 
many  Christian  parents  as  to  the  moral  and  spiritual 
surroundings  of  their  children. 

It  seems  to  this  writer  that  if  the  Christian  peo- 
ple of  our  country  could  once  get  a  clear  view  of 
the  real  situation — that  every  child  within  their 
reach  is  God's  child  ;  that  he  is  intensely  interested 
in  its  future  ;  that  to  rescue  and  save  it  is  the 
grandest  mission  and  the  highest  and  the  largest  and 
the  most  sacred  that  can  be  committed  to  any  intel- 
ligent being  in  God's  universe — such  a  conception 
would  revolutionize  all  our  methods  of  child-training 
and  speedily  transform  this  wicked,  ruined  world 
into  a  very  garden  of  God. 

To  aid  the  reader  in  reaching  up  to  this  conception 
is  the  intent  of  this  little  volume. 

THE  AUTHOR. 
Trenton,  N.  J.,  March  i,  1905. 

Hi 


INTRODUCTION 


The  author  of  these  pages  has  courteously  placed 
his  manuscript  in  my  hands  for  perusal  in  advance. 
I  have  been  greatly  interested  in  what  he  has  to 
say.  The  subject  which  he  discusses  is  one  of  the 
very  greatest  importance,  both  to  the  individual 
and  to  society.  It  is  evident  that  the  writer  has  the 
two  indispensable  qualifications  for  presenting  it. 
He  has  enthusiasm  and  he  has  experience.  With- 
out the  former  a  perfect  system,  with  the  truest  of 
conceptions  and  the  wisest  of  methods,  would  prove 
a  flat  failure  ;  while  without  the  latter  the  most  de- 
voted efforts,  with  the  noblest  of  impulses  and  the 
highest  aims,  would  go  wide  of  the  mark. 

It  is  said  that  one-half  of  the  world  does  not  know 
how  the  other  half  lives.  It  might  also  be  added  of 
the  upper  half  that  it  does  not  want  to.  And  there 
is  the  trouble.  Human  nature  is  incarnate  selfish- 
ness. Every  one  of  us  is  the  center  of  his  own 
little  world  and  he  must  look  out  upon  the  great 
world  without  through  the  green  windows  of  his 
own  little  self.  We  are  too  easily  content  to  stay 
within.  It  is  easy  to  condemn,  or  to  contemn,  or  to 
pity,  or  to  patronize  ;  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to  sym- 
pathize with  and  to  help  those  who  are  less  favored 
than  we.     We  quickly  turn  philosophers  and  set  to 

V 


Vi  INTRODUCTION 

accounting  for  it  all.  The  submerged  tenth  is  a 
constant  factor  in  the  world,  we  say,  and  we  must 
beware  of  nervous  prostration  in  undertaking  to  cor- 
rect what  we  cannot  avoid.  We  have  very  good 
authority  for  believing  that  we  are  to  have  the  poor 
with  us  always  and  we  are  not  obliged  to  do  much 
in  the  way  of  making  the  sacred  doctrine  untrue. 
This  is  the  attitude  of  callous  respectability,  it  is 
the  complacency  of  the  prospered.  It  is  the  selfish- 
ness of  the  well-clad,  the  well-fed,  and  the  safe. 

In  this  way  the  Good  Samaritan  is  forced  to  give 
way  to  the  haughty  Pharisee  and,  by  and  by, 
"willing  to  justify  himself,"  he  hatches  out  a  pre- 
tentious philosophy  of  society  which  is  indifferent 
to  the  cry  of  need  and  coldly  unresponsive  to  the 
bitter  wail  which  comes  up  from  the  poor.  It  is  one 
of  the  fine  symptoms  of  the  times  that  there  is  so 
much  of  earnest  and  organized  effort  in  behalf  of 
the  unfavored  and  the  neglected  classes  in  society. 
I  know  of  no  movement  which  has  in  it  more  of  the 
true  spirit  of  humanitarianism,  more  of  the  spirit  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  than  this  very  work  for  which 
this  little  book  pleads.  It  has  won  its  way  to  recog- 
nized merit  and  to  signal  success.  It  has  reached 
its  ripest  form  in  the  approved  effort  to  find  open 
homes  for  homeless  children.  The  child  was  made 
for  the  home  and  the  home  was  made  for  the  child  ; 
and  each  without  the  other  is  incomplete,  unhappy, 
and  sad.  It  is  a  work  of  priceless  worth,  in  the 
name  of  the  Seeker  and  Saviour  of  the  lost,  to 
bring  these  two  hemispheres  of  home  life  together. 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

Experience  has  brought  its  lessons  to  this  work, 
as  to  many  another.  The  almshouse,  the  institu- 
tion, and  the  boarding-house  have  all  been  left  be- 
hind on  the  way  of  progress.  It  is  not  enough  to 
take  the  little  waif — a  bundle  of  undeveloped,  im- 
mortal possibilities — and  make  of  him  a  pauper,  or 
a  machine,  or  even  a  boarder.  He  must  be  a  child 
if  he  is  ever  to  be  a  man.  He  must  be  given  a 
home  if  he  is  ever  to  reach  his  best.  And  this  is 
the  goal  of  the  child-saving  work.  It  is  nature's 
method  ;  it  is  God's  method  ;  of  course,  then,  it  is 
the  true  method. 

The  work  of  bringing  the  homeless  child  into  the 
childless  home  is  thrice  blessed  ;  it  blesses  the 
child  who  is  rescued  from  a  career  of  idleness  and 
aimlessness  and  vice  ;  it  blesses  the  home  which, 
without  the  prattle  and  the  promise  of  childhood, 
though  it  be  a  grand  and  gilded  palace,  is  only  a 
house  and  not  a  home  ;  and  it  blesses  the  unselfish 
agency  which,  like  some  good  angel,  reunites  those 
whom  God  hath  joined  together  but  whom  some 
ruthless  hand  has  torn  asunder. 

But  the  problem  of  the  waif  is  not  more  important 
than  that  of  the  pampered  and  petted  child  in  its 
comfortable  home.  The  very  foundations  of  our 
domestic  life  are  threatened  by  some  of  the  forces 
that  are  at  work  to-day.  The  home  is  menaced  and 
the  integrity  of  the  family  circle,  with  all  its  hallow- 
ing bonds  of  life  and  love,  is  imperilled.  There  are 
many  pretentious,  pedagogic  ideas  which  are  ex- 
ploited by  crabbed  old  bachelors  and  spinsters  who 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

know  far  more  about  the  laboratory  than  they  do 
about  the  nursery,  and  who  are  more  expert  in 
handling  an  abstract  theory  than  they  are  in  hand- 
ling a  real  flesh  and  blood  child.  Our  good  mothers 
knew  more  about  the  real  art  of  training  a  child 
than  their  whole  tribe  ! 

The  good  old  ideas  and  ideals  of  the  Christian 
family  will  never  be  outworn  or  obsolete.  As  we 
go  back  nearer  to  them  we  are  making  progress 
of  the  truest  sort.  And  there  are  no  short  cuts  to 
that  goal  or  patent  twentieth-century  methods  of 
achieving  it.  It  can  come  only  by  the  recognition 
of  the  individuality,  the  responsibility,  and  the  im- 
mortality of  the  child,  the  father  to  the  man.  The 
thought  of  what  their  little  child  is  and  of  what  it 
may  come  to  be,  is  the  great  incentive  and  inspira- 
tion through  all  the  years  of  patient  instruction  and 
training.  Mr.  Lamb's  book  presents  this  thought 
with  great  clearness  and  emphasis,  and  its  effect  can 
only  be  good  upon  Christian  parents  generally. 

I  am  sure  that  it  is  well  suited  to  do  much  good 
and  I  trust  that  it  may  come  into  the  hands  of  many 
a  reader  who  will  be  led  to  lend  his  aid  to  this  work, 
which  is  no  more  a  service  to  humanity  than  it  is  to 
humanity's  Saviour  and  Lord  ;  for  will  not  he  him- 
self say,  *'  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one 
of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it 
unto  me  "  ? 

Henry  Collin  Minton. 

Trenton,  N.  J.,  March,  1Q05. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  THE  Child  Demanding  attention u 

II.  GOD'S  CHILD 25 

in.  What  Shall  We  do  with  Him? 40 

IV.  THE  Christian  Home 59 

V.  The  Children's  Home  Society 70 

VI.  The  Great  Objection gi 

VII.  Some  practical  Lessons 108 


IX 


THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 


THE   CHILD   DEMANDING   ATTENTION 

THE  child  is  more  and  more  coming  to  the  front, 
and  for  two  reasons  : 

I.  Because  God  is  coming  to  the  front. 
His  conclusions,  his  views  of  things  are  securing  a 
recognition  to-day  as  never  before  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  and  we  are  gradually  climbing  up  where 
we  can  see  the  child  from  God's  standpoint,  and 
from  his  standpoint  the  child  is  always  to  the  front. 
2.  Because  we  are  learning  better  than  ever 
before  that  the  future  of  the  church,  of  the  nation, 
and  of  the  world  depends  upon  the  training  we  are 
giving  the  child  of  to-day,  and  very  largely  upon 
the  first  ten  years  of  that  child's  training.  More- 
over, the  child  that  furnishes  the  most  perplexing 
problem  is  the  homeless,  dependent  child,  because 
five-sevenths  of  the  criminals  in  our  country  come 
from  this  class  of  children,  and  the  criminal  classes 
are  on  the  increase,  especially  very  young  crim- 
inals. Hence  earnest  students  of  sociological  prob- 
lems have  come  to  consider  the  problem  of  the 


12 


THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 


child,  and  especially  the  dependent  and  neglected 
child,  as  the  problem  of  the  hour.  While,  there- 
fore, this  discussion  is  designed  to  be  general,  and 
to  appeal  to  all  Christian  parents,  we  shall  make 
prominent  the  cause  of  the  dependent  and  neg- 
lected  child.      God   takes  a  peculiar   and   tender 


interest  in  this  class  of  children,  as  we  shall  see, 
and  the  Christian  parent  who  has  in  any  small 
degree  reached  God's  thought  and  God's  reason 
for  his  thought  concerning  the  homeless  and  de- 
pendent child  will  have  found  his  love  and  inter- 
est and  his  plans  for  the  future  of  his  own  child 
immensely  increased.  For  these  reasons  we  es- 
pecially consider  it. 


THE  CHILD  DEMANDING  ATTENTION  13 

God*s  Interest  in  the  Poor 

At  the  beginning  of  tliis  discussion  we  call  spe- 
cial attention  to  a  very  remarkable  statement  as  to 
God's  interest  in  the  poor  and  unfortunate  : 

Blessed  is  he  that  considereth  the  poor ;  the 
Lord  will  deliver  him  in  time  of  trouble. 

The  Lord  will  preserve  him,  and  keep  him 
alive  ;  and  he  shall  be  blessed  upon  the  earth  ;  and 
thou  wilt  not  deliver  him  unto  the  will  of  his 
enemies. 

The  Lord  will  strengthen  him  upon  the  bed  of 
languishing ;  thou  wilt  make  all  his  bed  in  his 
sickness  (Ps.  41  :  1-3). 

Here  are  seven  large  promises  to  the  one  who 
considers  the  poor  :  (i)  He  will  be  delivered  in  time 
of  trouble  ;  (2)  preserved  ;  (3)  kept  alive  ;  (4) 
blessed  upon  the  earth  ;  (5)  not  delivered  to  the 
will  of  his  enemies  ;  (6)  strengthened  upon  the  bed 
of  languishing  ;  (7)  in  sickness  his  bed  made  by  the 
Almighty  himself. 

Equally  strong  and  seemingly  extravagant  are 
the  statements  in  Isa.  58  :  6-12  to  the  person  or 
persons  who  shall  : 

(i)  '*  Loose  the  bands  of  wickedness";  (2) 
"undo  heavy  burdens";  (3)  'Met  the  oppressed 
go  free";  (4)  **  break  every  yoke";  (5)  **deal 
thy  bread  to  the  hungry";  (6)  "bring  the  poor 
that  are  cast  out  to  thy  house  "(note  the  kind  of 
poor  people — "cast  out,"  that  is,  undesirable  people, 
not  wanted,  in  the  way.     And  note  again,  bring 


14  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

them  *'to  thy  house,"  not  send  them  to  the  ''alms- 
house," not  provide  comfortable  quarters  in  the 
''  orphanage  "  or  the  '*  home  for  the  aged  "  ;  a 
closer  fellowship,  a  deeper  interest  is  suggested — 
bring  them  *'to  thy  house'');  (7)  "cover  the 
naked  "  ;  (8)  "  draw  out  thy  soul  to  the  hungry  " 
(not  simply  feed  the  hungry  as  in  number  five,  but 
let  your  very  soul  be  brought  into  touch  with  the 
needy  one.  If  my  Lord  and  Master  were  hungry, 
and  I  had  the  unspeakable  privilege  of  feeding  him, 
how  would  my  whole  soul  be  enlisted,  ''drawn  out," 
in  the  blessed  service  !  But  now,  in  feeding  this 
hungry  one,  perhaps  the  Master  will  say,  "  Ye  have 
done  it  unto  me  ")  ;  (9)  "  satisfy  the  afflicted  soul." 
To  the  one  who  does  these  things  what  wonder- 
ful promises  are  made  : 

Then  shall  thy  light  break  forth  as  the  morn- 
ing, and  thine  health  shall  spring  forth  speedily  ; 
and  thy  righteousness  shall  go  before  thee  ;  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  thy  rearward. 

Then  shalt  thou  call,  and  the  Lord  shall  answer ; 
thou  shalt  cry  and  he  shall  say,  *  Here  I  am.'  .   . 

Then  shall  thy  light  rise  in  obscurity,  and  thy 
darkness  be  as  the  noonday  ; 

And  the  Lord  shall  guide  thee  continually,  and 
satisfy  thy  soul  in  drought,  and  make  fat  thy  bones  ; 
and  thou  shalt  be  like  a  watered  garden,  and  like  a 
spring  of  water,  whose  waters  fail  not. 

And  they  that  be  of  thee  shall  build  the  old  waste 
places  ;  thou  shalt  raise  up  the  foundations  of  many 
generations  ;  and  thou  shalt  be  called  the  repairer 
of  the  breech,  the  restorer  of  paths  to  dwell  in. 


THE  CHILD   DEMANDING  ATTENTION  1 5 

Marvelous  promises  !  Let  us  read  them  over 
again  !  Read  them  carefully.  What  a  world  of 
meaning  is  pressed  into  each  separate  statement  ! 
And  all  this  to  the  one  who  cares  for  the  unfor- 
tunate poor,  for  the  hungry,  the  naked,  the  aban- 
doned ones  !  How  certainly  and  completely  God 
takes  the  side  of  the  needy,  and  counts  everything 
done  for  such  a  one  as  done  for  himself !  How 
strong,  for  instance,  the  expression  in  Prov.  19  : 
17:  "He  that  hath  pity  upon  the  poor  lendeth 
unto  the  Lord,  and  that  which  he  hath  given  will 
he  pay  him  again." 

The  Purpose  of  this  Treatise 

It  is  purposed  in  this  little  treatise  to  attempt 
briefly  to  answer  a  very  interesting  and  practical 
question  :  "  Why  is  God  so  deeply  interested  in  the 
poor  ?  "  And  because  this  is  a  large  subject,  we 
will  confine  the  discussion  chiefly  to  one  single  class 
of  the  poor,  a  poor  child.  For  there  is  no  person 
on  earth  so  exceedingly  poor  as  a  poor  child,  a  little, 
helpless  child  that  has  been  "cast  out." 

Possibly  the  reader  may  wonder  that  we  should 
even  attempt  to  discuss  the  whys  and  wherefores 
of  a  question  about  which  everybody  is  agreed. 
God  loves  little  children  ;  we  all  believe  that. 
There  is  no  difference  of  opinion  upon  this  point. 
But  if  we  should  ask  each  one  of  our  readers  per- 
sonally, "Why  in  your  opinion  does  God  love  a 
little  child  ?  "  we  would  probably  receive  almost  as 
many  answers  as  there  are  readers.  In  a  general 
B 


l6  THE  CHILD  AND   GOD 

way  we  would  all  say,  ''  God  loves  all  our  race, 
loves  the  whole  world  with  an  infinite  love  ;  and 
he  loves  because  it  is  just  like  him  to  love.  It  is 
his  nature  to  love.  Love  is  the  great  central  at- 
tribute of  his  being  around  which  all  his  other 
attributes  appear  to  revolve,  and  to  gratify  which 
they  all  seem  to  exist."  But  just  why  God  should 
select  the  poor,  and  make  them  the  objects  of  his 
peculiar  attention  it  may  not  be  so  easy  to  discover. 
For  evidently  it  is  not  enough  to  say  that  God  gives 
special  attention  to  the  poor  that  are  ''cast  out" 
because  they  are  more  in  need  of  such  interest  and 
care.  This  may  be  true,  is  undoubtedly  true,  but 
there  are  evidently  other  reasons,  deeper,  broader 
reasons  for  God's  peculiar  interest  in  the  needy 
ones,  especially  in  the  little  helpless  child  that  is 
homeless  and  has  been  **  cast  out." 

A  Child  Introduced 

Let  us  introduce  to  our  readers  a  little  child  and 
see  what  we  can  discover. 

Suppose  we  bring  a  dirty  little  boy  that  has  just 
been  found  on  the  corner  of  one  of  our  streets. 
He  has  evidently  met  with  an  accident  or  some 
misfortune  has  come  to  him,  for  he  is  crying  bit- 
terly. His  clothes  are  torn  almost  into  shreds  and 
covered  with  mud,  and  his  face  is  so  disfigured  with 
his  crying  and  with  the  dust  of  the  street,  through 
which  the  hot  tears  have  been  plowing  furrows,, 
that  it  is  difficult  at  first  to  tell  anything  about  the 
child,  whose  it  is,  whether  high  bred  or  low  bred. 


THE  CHILD  DEMANDING  ATTENTION 


17 


It  may  perchance  be  my  child  that  has,  unknown 
to  me,  gotten  out  upon  the  street  and  met  with  an 
accident.  Or  he  may  belong  to  a  neighbor's  family, 
perhaps  one  of  the  best,  the  most  honored,  most 
wealthy  families  in  the  city.  It  may  perchance 
belong  to  one  of 
the  first  families 
in  our  country, 
— has  been  kid- 
napped and  left 
here  this  morn- 
ing in  this  sad 
plight.  Or  it 
may  be,  as  it 
more  likely 
would  be,  the 
abandoned,  neg- 
lected child  of 
some  worth- 
less  outcast  of 
society. 

Let  us  briefly 
investigate  the 
situation  and 
see  what  we  can  see.  If  this  crying,  disfigured, 
dirty,  and  almost  naked  child  shall  prove  to  be  my 
child,  it  goes  without  saying  it  will  be  immediately 
taken  into  my  arms  and  tenderly,  passionately  em- 
braced and  kissed  and  soothed,  and  then  hurried 
home  and  washed  and  clothed.  **  My  child  in 
trouble  !      My   child   had  an   accident !      There   is 


l8  THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 

nothing  on  earth  I  would  not  sacritlce  for  my  child, 
as  dear  to  me  as  my  own  life." 

Or  suppose  we  discover  that  this  unfortunate 
little  child  belongs  to  one  of  the  prominent  families 
of  the  neighborhood.  A  carriage  will  immediately 
be  ordered  and  the  child  be  carefully  and  tenderly 
placed  in  it  and  carried  to  his  home.  Each  one  of 
us  is  ready  and  eager  under  such  circumstances  to 
lend  a  helping  hand,  glad  if  we  can  be  foremost  in 
the  pleasant  service  of  rescue  and  restoration. 

The  President's  Boy  Kidnapped 

Again,  if  admissible,  for  the  sake  of  illustration, 
let  us  suppose  that  the  president  of  the  United 
States  has  a  boy  who  has  been  kidnapped  and 
brought  here  this  morning  and  left  upon  the  street 
corner  in  the  plight  already  described,  crying 
piteously,  covered  with  mud,  and  with  clothes  torn 
into  shreds.  No  sooner  would  the  boy's  identity 
be  discovered  than  the  whole  city  would  be  thrown 
into  the  wildest  excitement.  The  telegraph  wires 
would  immediately  flash  the  news  of  his  recovery 
to  Washington,  and  in  less  than  an  hour,  from 
Maine  to  California,  the  whole  country  would  be 
apprised  of  his  rescue.  All  the  leading  daily  papers 
in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  and  adjacent  cities 
would  immediately  send  their  best  reporters  to 
gather  up  for  an  eager  public  every  possible  item 
of  information  regarding  the  matter.  All  who  had 
anything  to  do  with  the  boy  in  any  way  would  find 
themselves  suddenly  famous.    Their  names  in  large 


THE  CHILD   DEMANDING   ATTENTION  I9 

headlines  would  appear  upon  the  front  page  of  thou- 
sands of  newspapers.  And  not  only  this  country 
but  the  whole  civilized  world  would  be  thrilled 
with  the  story  of  the  strange  kidnapping  and  the 
interesting  rescue. 

A  More  Probable  Solution 

But  now,  to  come  down  to  the  most  probable 
solution,  let  us  suppose  this  dirty,  crying  boy  found 
on  the  street  corner  proves  to  be  ''only  a  pauper 
whom  nobody  owns."  We  find  out  that  he  is  the 
child  of  some  worthless  outcast,  perhaps  of  noto- 
rious Jimmie  Brown,  once  a  bright,  promising,  and 
respectable  young  man  with  the  best  of  blood  run- 
ning in  his  veins.  Now  by  excessive  drinking  and 
various  debaucheries  he  has  sunk  to  the  lowest 
depths,  has  dragged  his  poor  wife  down  into  a  pre- 
mature grave,  and  at  last  has  abandoned  this  little 
boy  whom  we  have  found  upon  the  street  corner, 
motherless,  homeless,  heart-broken. 

Under  these  circumstances  what  will  be  said  and 
what  disposition  will  we  make  of  this  poor  outcast  ? 

hi  the  first  place,  everybody  who  sees  the  little 
fellow  crying  so  bitterly  wWlpity  him.  Not  one  of  us 
but  would  be  willing  to  stop  a  moment,  say  a  kind 
word,  and  perhaps  give  him  a  penny  or  a  nickel  to 
cheer  him  up.  Now  and  then  a  big-hearted,  moth- 
erly woman  will  stop,  perhaps  take  him  in  her  arms, 
wipe  the  dust  and  the  tears  from  his  face,  and  give 
him  a  real  hearty  kiss,  while  some  practically  dis- 
posed person  may  suggest  that  the  poor  boy  needs 


20  THE  CHILD  AND   GOD 

a  suit  of  clothing  and  the  nickels  and  dimes  and 
quarters  will  be  forthcoming  and  a  plain  but  com- 
fortable new  suit  secured.  But  the  boy  cannot  be 
left  upon  the  street  corner.  What  is  the  next  step  } 
If  the  child  is  old  enough  to  be  '*  handy  "  about  the 
house  or  barn  some  enterprising  farmer  or  farmer's 
wife  who  has  been  on  the  lookout  for  additional 
help  will  bid  for  him  at  once.  And  then  the  inci- 
dent will  end.  By  to-morrow  it  will  have  been 
largely  forgotten  by  the  most  of  us.  No  newspaper 
notoriety,  no  stirring  of  the  public  heart  or  con- 
science, no  click  of  the  telegraph,  and  perhaps  not 
an  individual  outside  of  the  few  who  happened  to 
pass  that  street  corner  would  ever  hear  of  the  affair. 

But  if  the  boy  is  not  old  enough  to  be  of  use  and 
must  be  cared  for  by  the  municipality  or  by  private 
benevolence,  before  deciding  what  disposition  shall 
be  made  of  him — whether  to  bundle  him  into  the 
first  cab  that  comes  along  and  send  him  to  the  alms- 
house or  place  him  in  the  nearest  orphanage  or  out 
to  board  at  the  expense  of  the  county — let  us  draw 
a  little  closer  to  this  boy  and  with  a  Christian's 
Bible  in  our  hands  and  the  Christian's  hope  as  an 
eyeglass  to  aid  us  in  our  search  for  hidden  treas- 
ures, combined  with  a  little  knowledge  of  the  human 
soul  and  its  destiny,  let  us  look  this  little  fellow 
over  more  carefully. 

And  at  the  very  threshold  of  our  investigation  we 
will  fmd  something  that  for  want  of  a  better  name 
we  will  call  an  interesting  **  tag  "  attached  to  this 
boy,  not  tied  to  him  with  a  string  but  written  down 


THE   CHILD   DEMANDING   ATTENTION  21 

plain  and  deep,  as  with  the  finger  of  God,  and  it 
reads  after  this  fashion  : 

"  When  my  father  and  my  mother  forsake  me, 
then  the  Lord  will  take  me  up,"  and  before  we 
have  fully  fathomed  the  meaning  of  these  strange 
words  we  find  another  tag  upon  which  is  written, 
"  The  Father  of  the  fatherless." 

And  we  begin  to  open  our  eyes  and  say,  "  What 
do  these  words  mean  ?  Is  this  child  related  to 
God  ?  Has  he  adopted  it  or  is  he  wanting  to  adopt 
it  ?  Has  he  '  taken  it  up  '  and  is  he  willing  to  call 
himself  its  father  ?  Was  that  abandoned  boy  created 
in  God's  image  ?  "  We  thought  him  the  offspring 
of  the  degraded  Jimmie  Brown,  but  we  have  dis- 
covered suggestions  of  a  higher  origin,  of  heredities 
that  possibly  may  link  him  to  the  throne  of  the 
Eternal.  Can  it  be  that  this  dirty,  ragged  little 
urchin  is,  after  all,  the  child  of  a  King  ? 

Let  us  continue  our  search  for  hidden  treasures 
and  see  if  we  cannot  obtain  further  light  upon  the 
profound  mystery  already  suspected. 

Yes,  that  little  abandoned,  homeless  outcast  will 
be  found  written  all  over  with  the  most  astounding 
prophecies  or  suggestions.  Here  is  another  one  : 
"  It  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven 
that  one  of  these  little  ones  shall  perish."  These 
words  suggest  deep  interest  on  the  part  of  God.  His 
heart  evidently  has  taken  large  stock  in  the  future 
of  that  child.  But  there  is  also  an  intimation  of 
anxiety  lest  after  all  this  little  child  shall  be  allowed 
to  perish.     And  if  it  goes  to  the  almshouse  or  is 


22  THE   CHILD   AND   GOD 

otherwise  neglected  it  will  certainly  perish.  Five- 
sevenths  of  all  the  criminals  in  our  country  have 
come  from  homeless  children,  from  just  such  neg- 
lected little  boys  as  this  one.  The  president's  boy 
would  go  to  the  bad  just  as  easily  and  surely  as  this 
one  if  neglected  or  put  in  this  boy's  place.  Notwith- 
standing all  his  noble  inherited  traits  and  qualities, 
there  is  nothing  can  save  him  from  absolute  ruin  or 
fit  him  for  the  high  position  his  birthright  offers  him 
but  constant  watchcare,  persistent  training,  and  the 
best  and  the  highest  environments.  And  this  boy 
on  the  street  corner  is  no  exception  to  this  rule, 
though  the  child  of  a  king  and  prospective  heir  to 
a  throne.  Only  persistent  effort,  Christian  train- 
ing, and  the  lifelong  environment  of  the  highest 
type  can  fit  that  boy  for  the  high  place  to  which  his 
divine  birthright  entitles  him. 

And  so  we  are  prepared  for  another  of  those 
strange  messages  from  the  throne  found  stamped 
upon  this  little  boy  : 

*'  Whosoever  will  receive  one  of  these  little  ones 
— this  little  boy — in  my  name,  receiveth  me." 

That  is  to  say,  Jesus  places  himself  by  the  side 
of  this  little  boy  and  says  to  each  one  of  his  dis- 
ciples, "  If  you  will  take  this  boy  into  your  home 
for  my  sake,  or  because  he  is  dear  to  me,  I  will  come 
with  him  and  abide  in  your  home  ;  he  is  my  boy, 
my  heart  is  bound  up  in  the  bundle  of  life  with  that 
boy.  I  go  where  he  goes  and  will  stay  where  he 
stays."  God's  unspeakable  gift,  the  richest  prize 
in  God's  universe,  the  **  pearl  of  great  price,"  offers 


THE  CHILD   DEMANDING   ATTENTION 


23 


himself  to  the  person  or  family  who  will  take  this 
little  boy  in.  The  Lord  of  lords  and  the  King  of 
kings  will  come  into  the  home  that  opens  to  this 
ragged  urchin. 

But  there  is  one  other  message  from  heaven  that 
is  written  all  over  the  dust  and  rags  and  unfortunate 
heredities 
that,  to  a 
super  ficial 
observer, 
stamp  this 
boy  as  "only 
a  pauper 
whom  n  0  - 
body  owns." 
And  this 
message 
from  above 
contains  a 
note  of  warn- 
ing combined 
with   strange 

suggestions  of  wondrous  import :  **  Take  heed — be 
exceedingly  careful — that  ye  despise  not,  neglect 
not,  this  little  boy,  for  I  say  unto  you  that  in  heaven 
his  angels  do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Father 
which  is  in  heaven." 

The  president's  boy,  if  kidnapped  and  discovered 
here  on  our  street  corner,  would  command  at  once 
the  telegraph  wires  and  the  newspaper  reporters  and 
the  front  page  all  over  our  land,  but  this  abandoned 


24  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

son  of  Jimmie  Brown  has  a  cohort  of  angels,  known 
and  recognized  as  ''his  angels,"  and  these  angels 
have  constant  access  to  the  throne.  And  they 
report  up  there  everything  that  is  done  down  here 
for  this  boy  or  against  him,  and  the  Father  of  this 
fatherless  boy  hears,  and  hears  with  absorbing 
interest,  and  it  is  recorded  up  there,  and  by  and  by 
it  will  be  announced  before  an  assembled  universe  ; 
'*  inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  unto  one  of  the  least  of 
these  " — to  this  poor  boy — '*  ye  did  it  not  to  me." 

God  the  Father  therefore  loves  this  poor  boy  and 
is  intensely  interested  in  him  because  he  is  his  boy, 
his  own  child,  born  in  his  image,  and  therefore  the 
inheritor  of  a  wonderful  future  that  only  sin  and 
Satan  and  depraving  environments  can  cheat  him 
out  of. 


GOD'S  CHILD 


LET  us  give  special  attention  to  the  last  state- 
ment made,  that  because  this  boy  is  God's 
child,  therefore  a  \Vonderful  future  is  planned 
for   him,   pro- 
vided he  can  be 
placed    in    such 
surroundings  as 
will  lead  him  to 
Christ. 

In  Matthew, 
the  twenty-fifth 
chapter,  Jesus 
says  to  those  on 
his  right  hand, 
''Come  ye 
blessed  of  my 
Father,  inherit 
the  kingdom 
prepared  for 
you  from  tlie 
foundation  of 
the  world."  We  call  the  reader's  attention  to  the 
word  "inherit."  To  inherit  a  kingdom  means  vastly 
more  than  to  be  simply  the  subject  of  a  kingdom.    It 

25 


26  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

means  to  inherit  the  throne,  to  become  the  rightful 
owner  and  controller  of  the  kingdom.  And  hence 
we  find  in  many  wonderful  passages  that  reveal  the 
future  of  the  saved,  they  are  represented  as  kings, 
not  as  subjects.  "  I  have  appointed  unto  you  a 
kingdom,  and  ye  shall  sit  on  thrones,''  Jesus  says. 

We  have  counted  not  less  than  seven  particulars 
wherein  the  redeemed  from  this  world  are,  appar- 
ently, to  have  the  advantage  of  the  highest  angels 
or  archangels  : 

1.  They  are  to  be  the  bride,  the  recognized  wife 
of  the  great  King  : 

For  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  is  come,  and  his 
wife  hath  made  herself  ready  (Rev.  19  :  7  ;  see  also 
Isa.  54  :  5  ;  Rev.  19  :  9  ;  21  :  9). 

2.  They  are  counted  as  brothers  and  sisters  and 
therefore  on  a  social  equality  with  Jesus  : 

For  both  he  that  sanctifieth  and  they  who  are 
sanctified  are  all  of  one  ;  for  which  cause  he  is  not 
ashamed  to  call  them  brethren  (Heb.  2  :  11). 

.  .  .  the  first-born  among  many  brethren  (Rom. 
8  :  29 ;  see  also  Mark  3  :  35  ;  John  15  :  15). 

3.  They  are  to  have  bodies  like  his  glorious  body  : 

Who  shall  change  our  vile  body,  that  it  may  be 
fashioned  like  unto  his  glorious  body  (Phil.  3:21; 
see  also  i  Cor.  15  :  47,  49). 

4.  They  will  bear  his  image  and  appear  like  him 
in  every  particular : 


god's  child  27 

Partakers  of  the  divine  nature  (2  Peter  i  :  4). 

Begotten  of  God  (i  John  5:1). 

But  we  know  that  when  he  shall  appear,  we 
shall  be  like  him  (i  John  3:2;  see  also  Rev.  22  : 
4 ;  Eph.  I  :  23). 

5.  They  will  share  with  him  all  his  infinite 
wealth  as  to  material  possessions  : 

He  that  overcometh  shall  inherit  all  things  ;  and 
I  will  be  his  God  and  he  shall  be  my  son  (Rev. 

21  :  7). 

And  if  children,  then  heirs  ;  heirs  of  God  and 
joint-heirs  with  Christ  (Rom.  8:17;  see  also  Gal. 
4  :  I,  7;  I  Cor.  3  :  21,  22). 

6.  They  will  share  with  him  his  royal  prerogatives, 
sit  with  him  upon  his  throne,  reign  with  him,  etc.  : 

To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  grant  to  sit  with 
me  in  my  throne,  even  as  I  also  overcame,  and  am 
set  down  with  my  Father  in  his  throne  (Rev. 
3  :  21). 

And  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God 
(Rev.  I  :  6). 

And    they    shall    reign    forever   and   ever  (Rev. 

22  :  5). 

7.  They  will  forever  enjoy  the  distinction  of 
priests,  men  who  stand  nearest  to  God  and  become 
his  representatives  to  the  people — teachers,  God's 
ambassadors,  ministers  plenipotentiary,  in  a  certain 
sense  revealers  of  God  : 


28  THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 

Ye  also,  as  lively  stones,  are  built  up  a  spiritual 
house,  a  holy  priesthood.  .  . 

But  ye  are  a  chosen  generation,  a  royal  priest- 
hood, a  holy  nation,  a  peculiar  people  (i  Peter 
2  :  5,  9). 

And  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God 
and  his  Father  (Rev.  i  :  6). 

But  they  shall  be  priests  of  God  and  of  Christ 
(Rev.  20  :  6). 

Now,  shall  I  venture  to  say  that  not  one  of  all 
these  royal  prerogatives  is  enjoyed  by  the  angels  ? 
They  do  not  have  material  bodies  like  unto  his 
glorious  body.  They  were  not  begotten  in  his 
image,  hence  they  are  not  reckoned  as  children, 
for  **he  took  not  upon  him  the  nature  of  angels." 
They  do  not  belong  to  the  private  family  of  the 
great  King  ;  high  lords,  mighty  princes  they  may 
be,  but  not  blood  relatives,  members  of  the  royal 
family.  Neither  do  they  sit  with  the  King  upon 
the  throne  ;  they  stand  around  the  throne  as  wait- 
ing servants.  They  do  not  wear  crowns,  nor  reign 
as  kings,  nor  perform  the  office  of  priests  ;  nor  are 
they  counted  as  the  bride  of  the  great  King,  heav- 
en's queen  ;  neither  are  they  heirs  of  the  material 
universe  ;  nor  counted  as  sharing  with  the  Lord  of 
lords  and  King  of  kings  his  honor  and  glory  and  an 
equal  place  with  him  in  the  tender  love  of  the 
Father  (John  15:9;   17  :  22,  23). 

Well,  now,  if  God  can  see  such  a  future  in  store 
for  this  boy,  such  a  central  place,  so  important  to 
all  the  universe,  on  condition  that  the  boy  can  be 


GOD'S  CHILD  29 

rescued  and  saved,  do  you  wonder  that  he  is  deeply, 
intensely  interested  in  that  boy  ?  And  interested 
not  simply  because  he  is  his  boy  and  as  such  may 
be  a  member  of  the  royal  family  forever,  but  be- 
cause he  loves  all  the  other  intelligent  beings  who 
might  be  touched  and  helped  and  blessed  by  this 
boy  while  occupying  the  position  of  a  king  and  a 
priest  and  an  own  brother  to  the  great  King  during 
all  the  endless  ages.  For  God  can  measure  up  and 
tabulate  in  his  mind  and  thought  all  the  glorious 
outcome,  the  sum  of  all  the  gracious  influences 
going  out  from  this  boy  during  the  ages  to  come,  if 
only  he  can  be  rescued. 

But  keeping  this  thought  still  in  mind,  let  us 
come  back  to  earthly  things  and  estimate  results 
that  we  are  more  capable  of  measuring. 

This  little  boy,  the  son  of  Jimmie  Brown,  we  will 
say,  is  a  fairly  promising  boy.  He  inherits  from 
both  his  parents,  born  before  the  father  had  shat- 
tered his  constitution  by  excesses,  a  healthy,  robust 
body  and  an  average  brain.  If  that  boy  can  have 
a  first-class  chance,  can  be  led  to  Christ  while  very 
young  and  filled  up  with  Bible  truth,  then  given  a 
good  education  and  the  very  best  of  social  and 
Christian  influences,  he  will  make  his  mark,  some- 
thing of  a  mark,  and  be  rated  as  among  the  very 
best  in  society. 

And  have  our  readers  tried  to  estimate  how  much 
that  means  .?  It  is  said  that  each  individual  who  is 
vigorous  and  healthy  and  lives  to  middle  life  or  old 
age  stands  as  the  representative  of  one  million  souls 


30 


THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 


within  five  liundred  years.  And  tiiis  is  easily  fig- 
ured out.  We  liave  only  to  suppose  that  each 
individual    life    doubles    itself    every    twenty-five 

years  ;  that  is, 
in  twenty-five 
years  the  one 
has  become 
two,  in  fifty 
years  the  two 
have  become 
four,  in  seven- 
ty-five years 
the  four  have  in- 
creased to  eight, 
and  in  one  hun- 
dred years  to 
sixteen.  At  this 
rate  of  increase, 
in  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years 
the  one  has  be- 
come one  thou- 
sand, and  in  two 
h  u  n  d  r  e  d  and 
fifty  years  more 
each  individual 
of  these  one 
thousand  has  become  a  thousand,  and  a  thousand 
thousands  make  one  million. 

An  old  man  captured  for  God  at  the  end  of  life 
stands  alone  without  a  successor.     But  that  little 


% 


William  Bryan  McKinley 


GOD'S  CHILD  31 

child  captured  for  God  means  twenty-five  years 
later  a  Christian  family,  and  in  five  hundred  years 
a  million  human  beings,  the  large  majority  of  whom 
we  may  confidently  believe  saved  eternally.  So 
far  as  the  purpose  and  force  of  this  argument 
is  concerned,  it  matters  not  whether  a  million 
descendants  be  reached  in  five  hundred  years  or  in 
one  thousand  years  ;  the  lesson  is  the  same. 

On  the  other  hand,  that  little  child  left  in  the 
almshouse  or  in  the  slums  without  a  home  and  a 
Christian  training  may  mean  in  twenty-five  years 
a  family  of  roughs. 

Mr.  R.  L.  Dugdale,  in  his  little  book  entitled 
**  The  Jukes,"  traces  through  many  generations 
the  descendants  of  one  neglected  and  vicious  girl. 
The  facts  are  simply  terrible.     He  shows  : 

That  a  very  large  proportion  of  the  descendants  of  this 
woman  became  licentious,  in  the  course  of  six  generations 
52.40  per  cent,  of  the  females  being  harlots  and  23.50  per  cent. 
of  the  children  illegitimate ;  that  there  were  seven  and  a  half 
times  more  paupers  among  the  women  than  among  the  aver- 
age women  of  the  State,  and  nine  times  more  paupers  among 
the  male  descendants  than  among  the  average  men  of  the 
State.  Of  seven  hundred  cases  examined,  two  hundred  and 
eighty  became  pauperized  adults,  and  this  study  covered  but 
about  one-third  of  the  family.  Moreover,  of  these  seven  hun- 
dred only  twenty-two  had  acquired  property  and  eight  of 
those  had  lost  what  they  had  gained.  Seventy-six  are  known 
to  have  been  convicted  of  crimes  and  punished,  while  it  is 
scarcely  to  be  doubted  that  more  than  double  that  number 
were  really  criminals.^ 

"^  Quoted  from  a  very  valuable  work  on  "Heredity  and  Christian  Prob- 
lems." by  Rev.  Dr.  A.  H.  Bradford. 


32  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

Now,  over  against  this  terrible  history,  place  an- 
other, that  of  a  Christian  boy  who,  about  two  hun- 
dred years  ago,  came  over  from  the  old  country  and 

Ten  years  later  became  a  deacon  in  a  Baptist  church.  Seven 
generations  since  have  counted  a  great  host  of  Christian 
families,  with  at  least  a  dozen  ministers  of  the  gospel,  scores 
of  deacons  and  Sunday-school  superintendents,  with  teachers 
by  the  hundreds.  One  of  these  descendants,  a  great-grand- 
son, himself  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  became  the  father  of 
sixteen  children,  every  one  of  whom  who  lived  to  be  old 
enough  became  an  earnest  Christian,  four  of  them  ministers 
of  the  gospel,  one  a  Christian  physician  ;  the  ten  who  lived 
to  mature  life  had  large  families  of  their  own,  averaging  eight 
children  each,  among  whom  can  be  counted  ministers,  teach- 
ers, physicians,  lawyers,  authors,  and  Sunday-school  workers 
by  the  score. 

One  of  these  ministers  is  known  to  have  been 
directly  instrumental  in  leading  at  least  half  a 
thousand  persons  to  Christ,  nine-tenths  of  whom 
remained  in  the  church,  many  of  them  becom- 
ing faithful  workers,  several  of  them  successful 
ministers  of  the  gospel. 

One  million  souls  in  five  hundred  years.  And 
the  character  of  every  individual  of  that  one  million, 
with  all  the  possibilities  for  good  or  for  evil  that  lie 
in  the  path  of  each,  may  be  influenced  somewhat 
at  least,  possibly  decided,  by  the  character  which 
we  give  or  fail  to  give  to  this  poor  child  we  have 
found  on  the  street  corner.     Tremendous  thought  ! 

Oh,  how  inconceivable  are  the  interests  that  are 
packed  into  the  chance  we  now  give  this  hoy.  May 
God  give  wisdom  and  understanding  and  grace. 


god's  child 


33 


If  we  could  only  climb  up  where  we  could  see 
things  as  God  can  see  them,  how  terribly  in  ear- 
nest would  we  become  to  secure  for  this  ragged, 
dirty  boy  a  first-class  chance.  We  have  found  that 
God  can  see  unspeakably  important  results  to  his 
kingdom  by  having  this  boy  rescued,  because  of  the 
important  place 
he  shall  occupy 
during  the  eter- 
nal ages  as  a  king 
and  a  priest  unto 
God.  But  now, 
we  have  learned 
that  not  only  this 
boy,  but  a  great 
multitude  of  his 
natural  descend- 
ants, possibly  a 
million  within 
fi  v  e  hundred 
years,  and  who 
can  tell  how 
many  more  millions  ere  time  shall  end  ?  are  also 
interested  directly  or  indirectly  in  the  chance  we 
now  give  this  boy.  When  we  consider  that  each 
one  of  these  million  or  millions  of  persons  is  just 
as  important  in  the  sight  of  God  as  this  boy,  each 
one  of  them  may  be  lifted  up  as  high  and  be- 
come as  valuable  to  the  universe,  if  he  can  be 
rescued  and  brought  to  Christ ;  and  when  we  con- 
sider still    further   that   the  eternal    destiny  of   a 


34  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

great  many  of  these  descendants,  possibly  a  large 
majority  of  them,  is  wrapped  up  to  a  certain  extent 
in  the  character  and  the  training  that  this  ragged 
boy  shall  receive,  how  many  thousand  times  is 
God's  interest  in  this  poor  boy  increased.  For 
God  can  easily  count  up  the  sum  total  of  all  the 
influences  either  for  good  or  for  ill  that  each  separate 
individual  of  these  million  descendants  shall  exert. 
But  we  are  only  just  beginning  to  step  out  a  little 
from  the  shore  into  the  mighty  ocean  of  influence. 
For  God  can  see  not  only  the  influence  that  this 
one  life  may  have  upon  the  character  and  the 
eternal  destiny  of  each  one  of  his  natural  descend- 
ants to  the  end  of  time,  but  God  can  see  even  more 
astounding  things  than  these.  For  this  boy,  if  now 
given  the  very  best  chance,  that  is,  if  he  is  led  to 
Christ  in  his  boyhood,  given  a  good  education,  filled 
with  Bible  truth,  and  placed  under  the  best  possible 
environment,  will  exert  a  saving  and  uplifting 
influence  not  only  upon  his  own  children,  and 
through  them  his  children's  children,  but  he  may 
exert  a  direct  and  saving  influence  upon  hundreds 
and  possibly  thousands  of  those  immediately  around 
him.  For  every  day  of  his  life  he  is  coming  in 
contact  with  other  people,  and  during  forty  or  fifty 
years  of  Christian  activities,  no  one  can  tell  how 
many  he  may  or  might  touch  for  good  or  inspire  to 
a  better  life,  if  he  is  only  taught  how  to  do  it.  And 
each  one  of  these  persons  will  become  a  center  of 
influence,  as  this  boy  ;  each  one  of  them  possibly 
the  head  of  a  great  multitude  who  shall  also  in  their 


GOD'S  CHILD  35 

turn  become  centers  of  influence  more  or  less  potent 
upon  those  around  them. 

Now,  if  we  are  lost  in  the  attempt  to  master  so 
mighty  a  problem  as  this  and  fmd  out  how  much 
God  can  see  in  this  little  ragged  boy,  if  he  can 
induce  some  one  to  receive  him  in  his  name  and  do 
for  him  all  that  love  and  wisdom  and  money  can  do 
to  fit  him  for  the  largest  possible  destiny,  we  may 
have  our  conceptions  still  further  enlarged  and 
intensified  as  to  God's  interest  in  this  boy  by  con- 
sidering the  awfully  tremendous  fact  that  all  these, 
to  us  immeasurable  sums  of  influence,  are  to  be 
decided  in  the  majority  of  cases  during  the  next  ten 
years  of  that  boys  life. 

'Mn  all  the  history  of  a  redeemed  soul  either  in 
time  or  in  eternity,  his  childhood  period  is  by  far 
the  most  important." 

Men  do  not  easily  assent  to  this  proposition.  It 
is  natural  to  brush  the  child  aside  for  more  important 
matters.  A  dozen  inquisitive  little  fellows  will  very 
likely  be  frowned  out  of  the  way,  while  we  pay 

our  respects  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  C ,  to  millionaire 

D ,  to  Hon.  Mr.  G ,  or  Judge  H .     Even 

in  our  home  life  Susan's  little  wants  and  heart 
troubles  must  take  second  place  to  the  great  matters 
of  to-day's  business.  The  sitting  room  must  be 
tidied,  and  the  dinner  precisely  on  time,  even 
though  Charlie's  lesson  be  neglected ;  or,  per- 
chance, though  he  is  outside  with  a  mischievous 
companion,  taking  another  lesson  that  will  soil  his 
character  possibly  for  life,  perhaps  for  eternity. 


36  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

It  is  diff^icLilt  for  us  to  fathom  the  full  meaning  of 
the  Master's  statement  already  briefly  considered  : 
''  In  heaven  their  angels  do  always  behold  the  face 
of  my  Father,"  indicating  that  up  yonder  children 
have  the  right  of  way,  are  objects  of  special  interest 
and  solicitude  ;  far  more  so  than  either  Rev.  Dr. 

C ,  or  millionaire  D ,  or  Hon.  Mr.  G , 

or  Judge  H ,  and  for  the  double  reason  that  this 

child  may  yet  occupy  as  wide  a  place,  become  as 
grand  a  man  as  either  of  these  noted  gentlemen  ; 
and  for  the  still  more  important  reason  that  all  its 
infinite  possibilities  are  now  at  stake,  and  are 
crowded  into  the  few  brief  years  of  its  childhood. 
The  future  of  all  these  honorable  gentlemen  is 
already  decided  ;  their  place  in  time  and  in  eternity 
is  substantially  fixed  ;  the  next  ten  years  of  their 
life  will  make  very  little  change  in  their  position  or 
prospects  either  here  or  hereafter.  But  how  dif- 
ferent with  the  little  child  ;  the  next  ten  years  ot 
its  life  practically  determine  everything  as  to  its 
future  ;  its  destiny  for  time  and  for  eternity,  whether 
it  shall  be  saved  or  lost,  and  whether  if  saved,  or  if 
lost,  it  shall  become  a  man  or  woman  of  infiuence 
and  power  to  pull  down  or  lift  up  a  multitude  ot 
other  souls.  All  this  will  be  largely  decided  during 
the  next  ten  years. 

For  the  character  is  formed  in  childhood,  the 
impressions  made  then  are  the  ineffaceable  ones. 
When  a  boy  about  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  of  age, 
I  committed  the  book  of  Matthew  to  memory  one 
summer  while  employed  on  the  home  farm  driving 


GOD'S  CHILD  37 

two  yoke  of  oxen  on  a  plow.  The  feat  was 
accomplished  so  that  I  could  repeat  the  book  from 
beginning  to  end.  And  that  book  is  mine  to-day, 
substantially  so,  at  least.  Though  I  cannot  now 
repeat  it  as  I  could  then,  yet  it  is  mine  as  no  other 
portion  of  the  sacred  volume  is  mine.  I  have 
attempted  since  to  commit  various  other  portions 
of  the  Bible  to  memory,  but  I  cannot  remember 
them  as  I  remember  Matthew.  And  that  book  has 
entered  into  the  formation  of  my  character  and  life 
as  no  other  portion  of  the  holy  Scriptures  has  been 
able  to  do.  But  so  have  the  dirty,  nasty  stories 
that  the  hired  man  used  to  tell  us  boys  while  at 
work  on  the  farm,  in  the  same  way  entered  into 
my  life  and  helped  to  tone  my  character.  I  have 
wished  a  thousand  times  that  1  could  banish  those 
miserable  stories  from  my  memory  and  life  ;  but 
every  little  while  they  come  up  unbidden,  as  fresh 
and  real  almost  as  the  day  I  heard  them.  A  source 
of  bitterest  regret;  a  dreaded  "octopus"  that  1 
cannot  shake  off,  whose  tentacles  are  fastened  way 
down  on  the  foundations  of  my  being  and  character 
these  stories  are. 

The  statement  that  a  boy  reared  in  an  almshouse 
until  fourteen  years  old  will  almost  certainly  be  a 
pauper  for  life^  is  only  a  confirmation  of  each  one's 
personal  experience.  We  are  all  very  largely  what 
we  were  made  in  childhood.  We  cannot  get  away 
from  the  memories  and  the  habits  and  the  impres- 
sions of  our  early  days. 

1  See  page  40. 


38  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

"  The  president  of  a  great  university  said  he  would 
give  years  of  his  life  if  he  could  forget  the  scenes 
and  thoughts  which  came  to  him  from  his  youth." 

O  Christian  parent,  be  careful  what  sort  of  hired 
man  or  hired  woman,  or  what  class  of  wild  street 
arabs  you  allow  to  come  in  contact  with  your  boy 
or  girl.  Do  not  cloud  an  entire  life  and  handicap 
your  child  for  eternity  by  allowing  its  young  and 
tenacious  memory  to  be  filled  up  with  thoughts  and 
impressions  that  can  only  degrade  and  defile,  and 
yet  can  never  be  effaced. 

But  why  discuss  this  even  for  a  moment ;  the 
thought  is  familiar  to  every  thoughtful  person. 
"As  the  twig  is  bent,  the  tree  is  inclined."  The 
clay  when  soft  can  be  molded  as  you  please  ;  in  the 
hands  of  the  potter  it  can  be  fashioned  into  this  or 
that  vessel,  as  suits  the  potter's  taste  ;  every  little 
indentation  or  figure  is  easily  made,  whether  of 
hideous  look  or  beautiful  contour.  But  once  made 
it  remains  forever.  A  day's  drying  and  a  few 
hours'  heat  in  the  furnace  renders  those  little 
finger  marks  fixed  and  unchangeable,  except  by 
immense  and  persevering  effort. 

God  evidently  understands,  as  we  cannot,  this 
peculiar  characteristic  of  childhood  ;  hence  his 
intense  interest  to  capture  that  child  for  heaven 
when  its  capture  is  easy  ;  to  have  the  molding  of 
that  pliable  clay  before  it  becomes  kiln-dried  and 
heated  in  the  furnace  ;  to  have  the  direction  of  the 
little  twig  when  every  little  bend  and  twist  shall 
help  to  shape  the  beauty  of  the  tree. 


GOD'S  CHILD  39 

No  wonder  therefore  that  God  is  deeply  interested 
in  this  ragged  boy  we  have  put  before  us ;  that  he 
can  afford  to  appoint  a  cohort  of  angels  to  attend 
him  ;  that  Jesus  himself  comes  down  by  his  side 
and  offers  the  richest  prize  in  God's  universe  to  the 
one  who  will  receive  and  care  for  him. 

What,  then,  shall  we  venture  to  do  with  this  boy 
found  to  be  the  child  of  a  King,  presumptive  heir 
to  the  throne,  and  containing  in  himself  the  seed 
germs  of  a  possible  million  other  kings  ? 


Ill 

WHAT  SHALL  WE   DO  WITH   HIM  ? 

A  BRIEF  glance  at  what  we  have  been  doing 
with  him   in   the   past   may  be   suggestive 
reading,  and    possibly  pave  the  way  for  a 
wiser  answer  to  this  question. 

In  the  working  out  of  the  great  problem  what  to 
do  with  a  homeless,  outcast  child,  there  have  been 
at  least  four  well-defined  stages,  each  a  great  ad- 
vance over  its  predecessors — the  almshouse,  the 
orphanage  or  children's  home,  the  boarding  family, 
and  the  Christian  home. 

THE  ALMSHOUSE 

I.  The  almshouse  was  the  first  attempt  to  care 
for  this  class  of  children.  But  its  utter  inadequacy 
to  meet  the  needs  very  soon  became  apparent  for 
two  special  reasons  : 

(i)  The  child  is  the  father  of  the  man.  A  pauper 
child  means  a  pauper  man,  and  probably  a  genera- 
tion of  paupers.  An  intelligent  man  who  had  spent 
his  life  in  the  care  of  almshouses  told  the  writer 
that  ''  A  boy  reared  in  an  almshouse  until  fourteen 
years  of  age  will  almost  certainly  be  a  pauper  for 
life.  Place  him  out  in  the  best  of  families  and  he 
will  drift  back  to  the  almshouse.  If  he  remains  out 
40 


WHAT   SHALL  WE   DO  WITH   HLM  ? 


41 


until  married,  and  has  a  family  of  children,  he  will 
work  his  way  back  to  the  almshouse  before  he  dies, 
taking  his  children  with  him."  To  rear  a  child,  then. 


As  Rescued  from  a  County  Poorhouse 


For  I  was  an  hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  meat ;  .  .  I  was 

a  stranger  and  ye  took  me  in." 

"  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of 

these  my  brethren  ye  have  done  it  unto  me," 


42  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

in  an  almshouse  means  a  lifelong  pauper,  a  genera- 
tion of  paupers,  very  likely  generations  of  paupers. 
(2)  But  still  worse,  the  criminal  instincts  are 
easily  developed  in  a  child.  The  tendency  with  al) 
of  us  is  to  the  bad  ;  the  natural  drift  is  with  the  cur- 
rent  downward.  It  requires  a  struggle,  an  ener- 
getic effort  to  go  up  stream.  Without  the  strongest 
kind  of  restraint  and  uplifting  influences  the  average 
child  will  be  a  failure  morally.  How  groundless  then 
the  hope  that  anything  valuable,  or  even  moder- 
ately respectable,  can  come  from  the  child  whose 
daily  association  is  with  all  sorts  of  the  shiftless 
and  worthless  and  semi-criminals  to  be  found  in 
the  average  almshouse.  A  child  reared  in  an  alms- 
house means  a  wrecked  manhood,  as  a  rule,  and  a 
degenerate  progeny. 

THE   ORPHANAGE 

2.  The  natural  step  out  of  the  almshouse  was  the 
institution,  the  orphanage  without  the  almshouse 
drawbacks.  A  vast  step  in  advance  this,  especially 
when  the  institution  was  founded,  and  is  conducted 
by  thoroughly  Christian  people,  as  they  usually 
are.  The  up-to-date  institution  furnishes  good, 
wholesome,  moral  restraint,  a  fairly  good  intellec- 
tual training,  systematic  and  helpful  physical  cul- 
ture, etc.  But  the  institutional  life  is  not  the  nor- 
mal or  natural  one  for  the  child.  And  the  consensus 
of  opinion  by  the  best  sociological  experts  is  against 
it.  While  the  child  is  guarded  against  a  multitude 
of  evil  influences  its  development  is  abnormal,  a 


WHAT  SHALL  WE   DO   WITH   HIM  ? 


43 


sort  of  hotbed  growth.  The  plant  reared  in  the 
hothouse  lacks  the  strong,  sturdy,  hardy  character 
of  the  plant  grown  out  in  the  sun  and  exposed  to 


Our  Future  Citizens.    This  Promising  Group 
Received  at  the  Same  Time 

"  Save  the  children  and  you  save  this  country  ;  save 
this  countrv  and  vou  save  this  world." 


the  winds  and  the  storms,  and  the  sudden  and  some- 
times severe  atmospherical  changes. 

God    did    not   put  children   into   institutions,  in 
groups,  to  be  reared  like  flocks  of  sheep  or  herds  of 


44  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

cattle  or  schools  of  fish.  He  puts  them  in  families, 
and  usually  one  at  a  time.  God  places  emphasis, 
an  immense  value  upon  each  individual  child,  be- 
cause he  has  a  vastly  important  and  a  unique  place 
for  each  one  to  occupy  during  the  future  ages. 
Just  as  he  creates  each  separate  world  by  itself, 
with  a  distinct  personality,  a  form  and  design  and 
destiny  peculiarly  its  own  in  the  building  up  of  his 
mighty  universe,  so  he  has  arranged  in  the  family 
life  that  each  child  shall  be  a  unit,  a  unit  too  that 
is  complete  in  itself,  having  a  personality  of  its 
own,  and  destined  both  here  and  in  the  future  life 
to  a  career  that  will  require  self-poise  and  independ- 
ence and  strength,  qualities  not  so  likely  to  be 
developed  in  the  institutional  life.  Not  only  does 
each  child  come  alone  into  the  world,  but  after  its 
birth  how  speedily  it  succeeds  in  centering  the  life 
and  thought  and  interest  of  the  family  circle  upon 
itself.  It  becomes  a  little  tyrant,  a  real  despot, 
whose  every  want  must  be  carefully  and  speedily 
met  or  there  is  trouble.  Its  very  first  instincts  are 
thus  a  sort  of  prophecy  of  what  it  is  destined  to 
become  in  the  amazing  plan  of  God — a  "king" 
and  a  ''priest  unto  God."  The  family  life  rather 
than  the  institutional  life  furnishes  the  normal  con- 
ditions for  the  nurture  and  the  development  of  the 
child  for  its  life  here  as  well  as  for  its  life  hereafter. 
But  we  had  to  reach  this  thought  by  gradual 
approaches,  one  step  at  a  time.  The  institution 
was  the  logical  and  natural  escape  from  the  alms- 
house, and  has  proved  of  inestimable  value  to  a  vast 


WHAT   SHALL  WE   DO   WITH   HIM  ?  45 

number  of  children  who  would  otherwise  have  be- 
come criminals  or  paupers.  It  has  proved  of  value 
also  as  an  object-lesson  for  earnest  philanthropists 
and  students  of  sociology  and  lovers  of  children.  It 
has  helped  immensely  in  the  study  of  the  child  prob- 
lem, and  if  it  has  itself  furnished  the  clear  evidence 
that  institutional  life  is  not  the  normal  life  for  a  child, 
it  has  nevertheless  earned  a  title  to  the  lasting  grati- 
tude of  the  Christian  world.  It  has  proved  a  half- 
way house  between  the  almshouse  and  the  family, 
and  the  distance  between  these  two  is  so  great  that 
it  is  questionable  whether  the  social  conscience  or 
the  Christian  conscience  could  ever  have  spanned 
it  without  the  help  of  this  half-way  halting-place. 

THE   BOARDING   FAMILY 

3.  The  third  step  has  therefore  already  been 
reached,  the  family  life,  the  natural,  normal  life  for 
every  child.  These  poor  children  have  been  de- 
prived of  this  blessed  boon,  a  real  home.  The 
parents  have  died  or  they  have  abandoned  their 
children,  or  remorseless  poverty  or  sheer  shiftless- 
ness  has  unfitted  them  for  this  sacred  trust,  and 
these  children  are  without  a  home.  What  shall  be 
done  for  them  ?  The  public  conscience  will  no 
longer  consent  to  their  committal  to  the  almshouse, 
except  possibly  for  a  few  days  ;  and  the  best  minds 
and  largest  hearts  of  to-day  have  decided  against  the 
institution  as  a  permanent  home  for  their  education 
and  training.  A  real  home,  family  life  is  the  life  these 
children  need  and  the  life  their  own  natures  ardently 

45 


46 


THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 


crave.     But  there  are  obstacles  in  the  way,  grave, 
and  some  of  them  apparently  insurmountable. 

hi  the  first  place,  families  that  perhaps  are  most 
in  need  of  a  child,  and  have  the  means  in  abun- 
dance for  providing  a  good  home  for  one,  do  not 


The  Soul's  Awakening 


A  White  Child  Rescued 

FROM  Negroes 

IN  December,  1901 


Same  Child  a  Few  Weeks  Later 

AS  Adopted  in 

A  Christian  Home 


want  it.  A  *' gilt-edged  "  child  they  might  take; 
the  child  of  some  respectable  relative,  or  of  a  family 
whose  social  standing  was  on  a  par  with  their  own, 
but  they  could  never  think  of  taking  such  children 
as  these  unfortunates  from  the  lower  classes  !    This 


WHAT  SHALL  WE  DO  WITH  HIM  ?  47 

has  been  one  of  the  most  difficult  things  to  over- 
come, especially  here  in  the  East.  Misconceptions 
as  to  heredity  are  almost  universal.  Indeed,  false 
ideas  of  caste  seem  to  be  natural  ;  they  are  inbred. 
''We  are  the  people,"  ''Our  blood  is  A  No.  i 
blood,"  is  a  conceit  not  confined  to  the  "  Four 
Hundred  "  by  any  manner  of  means.  Aristocracy 
is  in  all  our  veins.  The  world  was  made  and  re- 
volves chiefly  for  us,  and  those  persons  are  simply 
unfortunate  who  are  not  clocely  related  to  us  either 
by  blood  or  marriage  or  business  relation,  or  who 
happen  not  to  be  wealthy.  Of  course  plenty  of 
money  usually  atones  for  almost  all  kinds  of  bad 
heredities  !  It  is  exceedingly  hard  to  get  rid  of  the 
idea  that  the  poor  classes,  especially  the  children 
of  misfortune,  belong  to  an  inferior  race,  second- 
grade  people  whose  birthright  and  inheritance  is  a 
menial  life,  a  life  of  servitude. 

The  idea  that  the  child  from  the  lowest  and  most 
degraded  surroundings  may  have  fairly  good  blood 
in  its  veins,  and  at  all  events  should  be  placed  in  a 
first-class  Christian  family,  not  as  a  servant,  but 
given  all  the  exalted  opportunities  of  an  own  child, 
appears  simply  **  awful  "  in  the  estimation  of  a 
multitude  of  very  wise  people  !  The  agents  of  the 
Children's  Home  Society  have  even  been  accused 
of  imposition  when  they  place  a  child  of  unknown 
or  of  known  bad  heredities  in  a  nice  family  !  And 
the  suggestion  has  been  made  that  such  outrageous 
proceedings  should  be  stopped  by  statutory  laws  if 
they  could  not  otherwise  be  prevented  ! 

D 


48  THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 

This  caste  prejudice  is  more  prevalent  in  the 
Eastern  than  in  the  Western  States,  perhaps  be- 
cause we  have  studied  the  subject  of  heredity  more 
thoroughly  ! 

At  all  events,  after  the  revolt  against  institu- 
tional life,  there  appeared  no  other  way  of  getting 
these  unfortunate  children  into  family  homes  her  em 
the  East,  except  to  pay  for  their  board.  It  was  found 
that  by  paying  an  amount  equivalent  to  the  average 
cost  of  keeping  the  child  in  the  institution,  one  dol- 
lar and  fifty  cents  to  two  dollars  per  week,  with  the 
cost  of  clothing  and  medical  attendance  added, 
a  sufficient  number  of  respectable  families  would 
open  their  doors.  And  because  families  in  some 
instances  would  become  so  much  attached  to  their 
boarders  as  to  decide  to  take  them  as  their  own, 
and  thus  relieve  the  municipality  of  their  further 
support,  advocates  of  this  boarding-out  system  have 
become  very  positive  in  their  convictions  that  it 
is  the  system  and  answers  the  puzzling  problem 
''What  shall  be  done  with  the  dependent  chil- 
dren ?  "  more  satisfactorily  than  any  other  system 
yet  devised.  This  boarding-out  system  has  grown 
into  such  favor  that  it  has  become  the  prevailing 
method  in  the  States  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode 
Island,  Connecticut,  Pennsylvania,  and  four  years 
ago  was  adopted  in  New  Jersey  by  legal  enactment, 
and  partially  adopted  in  other  States,  in  a  modified 
form  in  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  and  Minnesota. 

This  boarding-out  system  has  some  desirable 
considerations  in  its   favor   as  compared  with  the 


WHAT   SHALL  WE    DO   WITH   HLM  ?  49 

institutional  life  that  it  is  designed  to  supersede. 
But  there  are  objections  to  the  system  that  are  ab- 
solutely fatal  to  its  claim  as  the  ideal  system.  I 
have  in  hand  the  annual  reports  of  the  Children's 
Aid  Society  of  Pennsylvania  for  eight  years.  This 
is  one  of  the  largest  and  most  reputable  of  the  older 
child-saving  agencies  in  this  country.  During  these 
eight  years  two  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  dependent  children  were  under  their  control. 
Seven  hundred  of  these  were  pauper  children,  that 
is  children  who  had  been  committed  to  various  alms- 
houses in  the  State  and  by  the  almshouse  authorities 
placed  under  the  control  of  this  Aid  Society. 

A  careful  study  of  these  eight  annual  reports  sug- 
gests some  weaknesses  in  the  system. 

It  is  an  expensive  system  ;  not  expensive  as  com- 
pared with  the  two  older  systems,  the  almshouse 
and  the  orphanage.  But  as  compared  with  the 
new  plan,  the  ideal  or  God's  plan,  the  boarding-out 
system  is  exceedingly  expensive.  The  money  con- 
sideration, however,  is  not  the  matter  of  most  im- 
portance. The  boarding-oiit  system  fails  to  secure 
a  teal  home  for  the  child.  Even  when  most  effi- 
ciently administered,  as  in  Pennsylvania,  where 
great  wisdom  has  for  the  most  part  been  displayed 
in  the  selection  of  the  best  available  homes,  fol- 
lowed too  by  a  very  admirable  system  of  oversight, 
with  rigid  rules  as  to  the  child's  attendance  upon 
the  day-school,  the  Sabbath-school,  and  the  church, 
it  has  failed  in  that  respect.  The  best  boarding- 
house  in  the  world,  even   though    located   in  the 


50  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

country  with  ideal  surroundings,  can  never  take 
the  place  of  a  real  home  in  the  thought  and  the 
heart  and  the  life  of  a  child. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  unfortunate  that  the  appeal 
must  be  made  to  the  mercenary  side  of  our  nature 
to  induce  the  family  to  take  a  child.  The  pay  for 
its  board  was  the  inducement  held  out  and  ac- 
cepted, hi  our  opinion  there  are  only  two  motives 
in  the  human  heart  that  are  sufficiently  strong  and 
sufficiently  God-like  to  insure  the  highest  interests 
of  a  child — real  parental  affection,  and  love  for 
God.  That  person  who  can  see  in  the  child  his 
own  flesh  and  blood,  or  learns  to  recognize  the 
new-comer  as  such,  and  love  it  as  though  it  were 
his  very  own  ;  and  that  other  person  who  loves 
God  supremely  and  gets  a  clear  view  of  God's  in- 
terest in  a  homeless  child,  his  great  yearning  for 
its  rescue,  and  why  he  is  interested,  and  then  takes 
that  child  to  his  home  and  his  heart,  with  an  intel- 
ligent purpose  to  aid  in  accomplishing  God's  wish 
and  plan — these  two  persons  can  be  safely  trusted^ 
with  the  raising  of  a  child,  a  young  immortal.  Any 
lower  motive,  especially  the  mercenary  one,  may 
mean  neglect  or  disaster.  For  the  child  is  regarded 
as  a  boarder.  The  neighbors  and  the  neighbors' 
children  all  know  that  this  child  is  simply  a  boarder, 
and  a  charity  boarder  at  that ;  the  chief  factor  in 
the  acceptance  and  in  the  retaining  of  this  child  by 
the  family  being  the  pay  received  from  the  State  or 
from  a  large  benevolent  organization.      And  this 

1  For  an  exception  to  the  first  of  these  persons  see  pp.  io8,  log. 


WHAT   SHALL  WE   DO   WITH   HIM  ?  5 1 

mercenary  spirit  naturally  grows  stronger.  If  the 
child  remains  in  the  family  for  years,  it  will  at  first 
be  received  with  much  affection.  Its  helplessness 
and  its  innocency  will  appeal  irresistibly  to  the 
heart  of  those  who  have  it  in  charge.  But  as  the 
child  grows  into  independence  and  becomes  self- 
willed  and  perhaps  saucy,  and  difficult  to  manage, 
and  begins  to  exhibit  unmistakable  traits  of  un- 
fortunate heredities,  it  will  require  a  deeper  interest 
than  the  paltry  sum  received  for  the  child's  board 
to  make  that  family  willing  to  grapple  with  the 
situation  with  a  firm  hand  and  a  strong  purpose. 

A  practical  illustration  of  this  statement  was 
given  the  writer  several  years  ago  by  a  prominent 
Presbyterian  pastor  who  had  previously  been  a 
pastor  in  Pennsylvania,  and  was  personally  ac- 
quainted with  the  incident.  A  little  boy  named 
Tommy  was  taken  by  a  family  with  the  full  inten- 
tion of  adopting  him,  but  it  finally  concluded  *'as 
that  course  would  cut  off  the  money  received  from 
the  county  for  his  board,  amounting  to  one  hun- 
dred dollars  a  year,  not  to  do  so."  The  outcome 
was  very  unfortunate  :  "  I  saw  Tommy  last  Sum- 
mer and  he  is  a  specimen  of  humanity  of  which 
very  few  people  would  be  proud.  For  the  last  few 
years  he  has  been  cast  out  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  mankind  to  make  his  own  way." 

That  this  is  not  an  exceptional  case  becomes 
very  apparent  as  we  study  the  eight  annual  reports 
of  the  Children's  Aid  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 
During  these  eight  years,  with  two  thousand  one 


52  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

hundred  and  twenty-three  children  under  its  care, 
only  seventeen  are  reported  as  adopted.     In  1894  and 

1897,  four  were  adopted  each  year  ;    in  1896  and 

1898,  three  each  year ;  in  1895,  1900,  and  1901,  one 
each  year  ;  and  in  1899,  not  one  was  adopted,  hi 
the  report  for  1897,  we  learn  that  of  the  four  adopted 
that  year,  one  of  them  had  been  kept  by  the 
family  nine  years  before  papers  of  adoption  were 
taken  out,  and  the  child  was  then  thirteen  years 
old.  That  is  to  say,  the  family  put  off  adoption 
for  nine  years  in  order  to  secure  the  one  hundred 
dollars  each  year  for  its  board.  And  when  the 
child  reached  the  age  of  thirteen,  and  they  could  no 
longer  receive  pay  for  its  board  (under  the  rules  of  the 
Society),  then  they  took  out  papers  of  adoption.  Two 
of  the  other  children  were  boarded  for  five  years 
each,  and  the  fourth  one  three  years  before  adop- 
tion papers  were  called  for.  Here  are  four  cases 
only  during  an  entire  year  where  love  for  the  child 
survived  the  onslaught  of  mammon.  The  society 
during  that  year  had  eight  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  children  under  its  care,  and  at  the  close  of 
the  year  had  four  hundred  and  thirty  for  whom  it 
was  still  paying  board. 

Of  course,  it  was  not  altogether  the  sop  of  one 
hundred  dollars  a  year  board  money  that  prevented 
all  these  other  four  hundred  and  thirty  children, 
or  any  considerable  portion  of  them  from  being 
adopted.  In  many  cases,  it  was  the  "caste  prej- 
udice "  already  alluded  to,  and  the  fact  that  these 
were    known   to   be    "charity    children"    by   the 


Twelve  of  These  Un 


FORTUNATES 


54  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

neighbors  and  the  friends  of  these  various  families. 
Fastidious  and  hypercritical  people  would  laugh  at 
them,  or  possibly  sneer  at  the  very  suggestion  that 
a  **  family  of  the  social   standing  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 

H could  be  willing  to  take  a  *  charity  '  child  as 

its  Qwn  child  ;  a  child  of  unfortunate  antecedents, 
as  the  most  of  them  are,  and  who  probably  has  hid 
in  its  blood  all  sorts  of  mischievous  and  dangerous 
tendencies."  These  families  will  not  adopt  these 
children  as  their  own,  but  for  the  consideration  of 
one  hundred  dollars  per  year,  they  will  keep  them 
in  their  own  families  just  the  same  ;  in  constant 
touch  and  most  familiar  intercourse  with  their  own 
children  ;  helping  to  mold  the  characters  and  dis- 
tribute their  poison  —  if  there  be  poison  in  their 
blood — to  every  young  and  tender  member  of  the 
household.  This  is  all  right  in  the  estimation  of 
these  fastidious  and  hypercritical  people.  They  can 
discover  no  objection  to  having  these  children  in  the 
family,  provided  the  family  does  not  adopt  them. 

But  whatever  may  be  the  reason,  the  fact  re- 
mains that  the  boarding-out  system  appears  to  be 
fatal  to  the  dearest  interest  of  the  child  in  the 
matter  of  adoption.  Here  in  Pennsylvania  is  a  large 
society  equipped  with  the  best  possible  facilities 
and  with  large  wisdom  and  long  years  of  experience, 
having  two  thousand  one  hundred  and  twenty-three 
children  pass  through  its  hand,  and  at  least  one-half 
of  this  number  boarded  in  the  country  in  plain,  sub- 
stantial, respectable  homes  for  a  period  averaging 
from  one  to  ten  or  twelve  years  each,  and  only 


WHAT   SHALL  WE   DO   WITH   HLW  ? 


55 


seventeen  out  of  them  all  have  succeeded  in  so 
winning  their  way  into  the  hearts  of  these  families 
as  to  secure  the  blessings  of  a  real,  true  home  by 
legal  adoption/  This  is  certainly  not  encouraging. 
Something  is  evidently  wrong  somewhere.  Lit- 
tle innocent  children  are  wonderfully  winsome.  It 
would  require  a  mighty  counter  current  to  success- 


As  Received  Through 
THE  Court 


Eighteen  Months  Later 

Adoptel  as  an  Only  Child 

IN  A  Christian  Family 


fully  resist  the  magnet  of  their  eloquent  appeals  for 
true  love  and  a  real  home.  But  caste  prejudice 
and  the  love  of  money  are  well-nigh  irresistible  ; 
and  if  these  do  not  account  for  the  turning  down 
and   the    blighting  of  so   many  of   these   precious 

'  The  experience  of  the  State  Board  of  Children's  Guardians  in  New 
Jersey  is  much  the  same.  During  the  first  three  years,  one  thousand  two 
hundred  and  seventy-nine  children  came  under  their  control,  and  four  hun- 
dred and  twenty-three  of  these  were  still  in  their  hands  at  the  end  of  the 
third  year — but  only  eight  had  been  adopted.     See  Report  for  1902. 


56  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

lives  ana  precious  souls,  then  let  the  friends  of  the 
boarding-out  system  explain. 

And  for  a  brief  moment  let  us  consider  what  it 
means  to  a  child  to  be  deprived  of  this  great  privi- 
lege, legal  adoption.  Not  to  be  adopted  but  treated  as 
a  public  charge,  the  child  is  denied  many  privileges 
that  an  own  child  secures.  The  following  letter  from 
a  ward  of  the  New  Jersey  Children's  Home  Society 
who  has  been  adopted  is  very  suggestive  : 

I  am  getting  to  be  a  very  big  girl,  and  1  will  be  thirteen 

years  old  on  May .     Mamma  is  going  to  give  me  a  silver 

watch  for  my  birthday,  and  papa  is  going  to  give  me  a  gold 
ring.  I  got  an  organ  for  Christmas.  I  am  taking  music 
lessons  every  week.  I  have  a  wheel  which  I  got  when  1  was 
twelve  years  old,  and  I  like  it  very  much.  Mamma  and  papa 
are  as  kind  to  me  as  they  can  be,  and  I  almost  get  everything 
that  1  want. 

A  child  boarded  out  would  hardly  be  provided 
with  watches,  rings,  organs,  music  lessons,  wheels, 
and  a  multitude  of  other  pleasant  and  desirable 
things  that  love  furnishes. 

An  adopted  child  has  a  great  many  other  advan- 
tages over  a  ward  of  the  State.  He  is  not  turned 
loose  at  fifteen  years  of  age  to  look  out  for  himself, 
but  tenderly  cared  for  until  of  age,  taught  a  lucra- 
tive trade,  perhaps  is  admitted  into  partnership 
with  his  father,  and  at  the  father's  death  becomes 
his  heir.  All  these  special  privileges  of  a  son  and 
a  multitude  more  that  will  readily  occur  to  the 
reader  are  not  enjoyed  by  the  child  boarded  out,  or 
by  a  ward  of  the  State,  however  cared  for. 


WHAT   SHALL  WE   DO   WITH   HIM  ? 


57 


We  believe  fully  in  the  statement  of  our  fore- 
fathers that  **A11  men  are  created  free  and  equal," 
and  among  other  inalienable  rights  are  'Mife,  liberty, 


Drifting 

As  Rescued  from 
THE  Slums 


Anchored 

After  Five  Months  in  a 
Christian  Family 


and  the  pursuit  of  happiness."  That  little  innocent 
child  is  not  to  blame  because  its  father  was  unfor- 
tunate, and  it  ought  not  to  be  punished  for  life  be- 
cause of  that  fact.     But  if  the  old  ideas  of  caste  are 


58  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

correct,  then  the  institutional  life  or  the  boarding- 
out  system  is  the  proper  method  for  the  training  of 
this  class  of  children.  Either  system  will  do  well 
enough  all  that  is  needed  to  be  done  for  these  chil- 
dren. That  is,  it  will  fit  them  for  a  life  of  servi- 
tude, and  perhaps  make  them  content  with  a  second- 
rate  station  for  life.  At  least,  by  years  of  persistent 
drilling,  they  are  taught  to  look  on  resignedly  and 
see  happy  children  all  around  them  receive  all  sorts 
of  tender  love  tokens,  valuable  presents,  special 
school  privileges,  business  opportunities,  an  heir- 
ship to  valuable  estates,  or  other  perquisites  forever 
denied  to  them. 

But  if  our  contention  is  correct,  then  these  old 
systems  are  awkward  blunders,  the  rude  attempts 
of  beginners  in  the  science  of  sociology.  They  are 
worse  than  blunders  because  they  are  dealing  with 
young  immortals ;  pardonable  perhaps,  because 
done  in  our  ignorance,  but  nevertheless  real  rob- 
beries. They  rob  the  child,  they  rob  society,  they 
rob  God,  and  rob  God's  universe  of  immeasurable 
good  that  might  accrue  had  those  children  secured 
another  kind  of  training  and  environment.  We 
show  to  you,  therefore,  a  more  excellent  way. 


IV 

THE  CHRISTIAN   HOME 

WE  are  prepared,  then,  for  the  fourth  stage  in 
the  development  of  the  child-saving  prob- 
lem, the  Christian  home.  First,  the  alms- 
house ;  second,  the  orphanage  ;  third,  the  boarding 
family  ;  and  fourth,  the  Christian  home.  The  last 
two  terms  are  used  relatively.  They  are  not  in- 
tended to  describe  character,  but  motive.  By  the 
boarding  family  is  meant  the  family  that  takes  the 
child  without  a  Christian  motive  in  the  taking  ; 
takes  it  for  the  pay  offered  for  its  board,  or  for  the 
service  it  is  expected  to  get  out  of  the  child  in  the 
form  of  work.  In  this  class  is  a  multitude  of  the 
very  best  Christian  families,  but  their  Christian 
principles  and  motives  take  second  place  in  the  re- 
ception of  this  child.  They  have  been  governed 
chiefly  by  pecuniary  considerations,  perhaps  be- 
cause they  have  not  yet  learned  how  to  bring 
Christ  prominently  into  their  daily  life  and  their 
business  plans ;  more  likely,  however,  because 
they  have  never  stopped  to  consider  what  an  im- 
mensely important  matter  it  is,  this  assuming  charge 
of  a  priceless  soul,  educating  and  training  a  future 
king  and  priest  unto  God. 

By  the  term  "  Christian  home  "  is  simply  meant 

59 


6o 


THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 


a  family  that  takes  a  child  for  Christ's  sake,  takes 
it  to  help  save  it.  This  is  God's  plan,  and  there- 
fore the  highest,  the  ideal  plan,  and  is  plainly  and 

fully  set  forth  in 
the  words  al- 
ready consider- 
ed :  *'  W  h  oso- 
ever  will  receive 
one  such  little 
child  in  my 
name.'" 

And  the  point 
we  desire  to  im- 
press  is  that 
every  child,  no 
matter  what  its 
antecedents,  has 
such  unspeak- 
able interests 
depending  upon 
the  disposition 
now  made  of  it, 
and  the  circum- 
stances that  for 
the  next  few 
\'ears  shall  sur- 
round it,  that  we 
cannot,  we  dare  not,  be  careless  or  thoughtless.  We 
are  treading  on  holy  ground,  and  should  therefore 
''walk  softly  before  God." 

If  the  president's  boy  were  actually  found  on  the 


1 

i" 

i 

'^m^ 

Td 

1 

1 

THE  CHRISTIAN  HOME  6l 

street  corner  in  the  plight  we  have  described,  and 
the  president,  for  reasons  of  his  own,  should  de- 
cide to  let  one  of  us  take  this  boy  for  a  period  of 
years,  to  be  trained  and  fitted  for  some  high  and 
noble  position,  would  he  esteem  it  a  matter  of  small 
importance  whether  the  family  had  a  clear  sense  of 
the  responsibilities  it  was  assuming,  and  some  con- 
ception of  the  kind  of  care  and  training  the  boy 
needed  to  fit  him  in  the  best  possible  way  for  his 
future  life,  and  that  would  therefore  devote  time 
and  thought  and  heart  just  as  far  as  possible  to  the 
attainment  of  this  object  ?  To  cherish  any  low  con- 
ceptions of  the  obligations  assumed,  or  allow  any 
mercenary  considerations  to  hide  from  view  the  real 
purpose  of  the  father  in  committing  his  beloved  child 
to  its  care  would  at  once  prove  such  family  to  be 
unfit  to  be  entrusted  with  so  important  a  charge. 

It  is  clearly  not  sufficient  that  the  family  be  a 
Christian  family,  or  that  it  take  the  child  free  of 
charge.  An  institutional  life,  even  an  almshouse 
might  be  a  safer  place  in  which  to  rear  a  boy  than 
many  a  good  Christian  family,  if  the  persons  in 
charge  have  a  clearer  and  higher  conception  of 
what  they  are  undertaking.  And  the  family  best 
fitted  to  train  that  boy  and  that  would  do  it  most 
carefully  and  conscientiously  might  very  likely  ac- 
cept and  expect  liberal  pay  for  the  services  ren- 
dered. The  mere  fact  of  receiving  pay  for  services 
rendered  does  not  necessarily  unfit  a  person  for  the 
highest  and  holiest  service. 

The  conclusion  reached  by  the  best  sociologists 


62  THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 

of  the  present  day  is  that,  other  things  being  equal, 
the  Christian  family  is  by  far  the  best  place  be- 
cause it  is  the  natural  place  for  the  completest  all- 
around  development  of  a  child  ;  and  the  point  we 
desire  to  impress  is  that  this  best  place  is  not  an 
ideal  place  unless  the  family  has  reached  up  in 
some  degree  to  God's  conception  of  the  value  of 
the  child,  and  has  also  grasped  in  a  measure  God's 
conception  of  the  kind  of  training  and  environment 
best  calculated  to  fit  that  child  for  its  high  destiny. 

And  if  the  greatest  care  and  wisdom  would  be 
exercised  in  the  selection  of  a  home  for  the  train- 
ing of  the  son  of  our  president,  how  much  more 
need  of  carefulness  and  of  wisdom  in  the  disposi- 
tion we  make  of  this  ragged  boy  whom  we  have 
discovered  to  be  a  child  of  a  king,  and  that  king 
the  *' King  of  kings"  and  **  Lord  of  lords,"  and 
whose  Father  has  a  very  large  place  for  him  to  oc- 
cupy by  and  by,  and  has  now  providentially  thrown 
him  into  our  hands  in  this  strange  way  to  give  us 
the  opportunity  of  aiding  him  in  the  boy's  rescue 
from  the  grasp  of  the  destroyer,  and  to  fit  him  in 
the  best  possible  way  for  the  priesthood  and  the 
kingdom,  both  here  and  hereafter,  that  he  has 
prepared  for  him. 

I.  If  God  has  really  adopted  this  child  as  his 
own,  and  has  entrusted  me  with  its  care,  then  a 
strange  sacredness  at  once  attaches  to  such  a  trust 
— the  consciousness  of  an  exalted  mission.  It  is 
God's  child  ;  he,  therefore,  is  a  party  to  everything 
I  do  for   that  child  ;    not   an   interested  spectator 


THE   CHRISTIAN  HOME 


63 


simply,  but  a  vitally  interested  party.  He  owns 
that  child,  and  everything  I  do  for  it  or  neglect  to 
do  is  done  for  Him  or  against  Him.  He  sees  a  jewel 
of  incalculable  value  in  that  child.  Let  me  there- 
fore beware 
how  1  esteem 
it  lightly  or 
despise  it. 
He  has  a 
wonderfully 
exalted  mis- 
sion, a  king- 
d  0  m  pre- 
pared for 
that  child 
from  the 
foundation  of 
the  world, 
and  is  there- 
fore deeply, 
personally 
interested  in 
every  word 
and    act    by 

which  I  may  influence  him.  He  not  only  has  large 
things  in  store  for  this  child,  but  as  already  learned. 
He  can  count  up  the  ten  thousand  streams  of  influ- 
ence whose  measure  and  power  over  others  are  to  he 
determined  chiefly  by  the  thoroughness  of  the  training 
that  I  may  he  ahle  to  give  him.  Let  me  therefore  trem- 
ble lest  by  any  neglect  of  mine  God's  plans  shall  be 

E 


64  THE   CHILD   AND   GOD 

frustrated  and  that  child  miss  of  his  kingdom,  and  the 
whole  universe  he  forever  the  poorer  for  my  care- 
lessness and  sin.  Of  course,  this  kind  of  careful 
and  thorough  oversight  might  be  exercised  in  an  in- 
stitution or  a  boarding  house.  Naturally,  however, 
it  belongs  rather  to  the  privacy  of  the  home  life, 
and  grows  out  of  the  tender  and  loving  ties  that 
bind  parent  and  child  together,  especially  in  that 
home  that  has  come  to  recognize  God  as  its  center. 

2.  It  is  God's  child,  and  therefore  an  exalted 
honor  to  be  permitted  to  receive  and  care  for  it. 
Instead  of  such  a  child  being  beneath  my  grade,  1 
am  exceedingly  exalted  by  the  privilege  of  receiv- 
ing it.  I  have  become  the  debtor  instead  of  the 
child,  because  that  child  is  no  longer  counted  the 
lowly,  degraded  offspring  of  some  outcast  from  so- 
ciety. We  have  discovered  that  it  is  a  very  near 
and  dear  relative  of  the  great  King,  and  therefore 
worthy  of  being  received  and  held  in  honor  by  the 
most  refined  and  noblest  family  on  earth. 

Suppose  this  child  does  by  and  by  begin  to  ex- 
hibit bad  heredities,  as  very  likely  he  will,  what  will 
we  do  with  him  ?  If  it  was  our  president's  boy, 
what  would  we  do  ?  For  his  boy  will  be  found  filled 
full  of  the  most  mischievous  tendencies,  and  some 
of  them  very  depraving,  unless  he  differs  from  your 
boy  or  mine.  Will  we  immediately  return  him  to 
his  father  with  our  tale  of  woe  ?  Rather  will  we  not 
begin  at  once  with  energy  and  wisdom  to  wrestle 
with  these  new  problems  and  seek  to  overcome 
them  .?     This  little  waif,  filled  full  of  unfortunate 


THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME  65 

heredities,  has  yet  been  adopted  by  the  great  King. 
Because  he  can  see  wonderful  possibihties  in  him 
he  has  conferred  upon  me  the  distinguished  honor 
of  helping  him  to  secure  for  tliat  little  child  all 
these  possibilities.  And  that  there  may  be  no 
chance  of  failure  in  my  mission,  he  has  put  that 
child  into  my  keeping  while  very  young  and  tender 
and  easily  molded.  He  has  withal  placed  in  my 
hands  for  the  capture  and  control  of  that  child, 
agencies  and  instruments  that  are  absolutely  irre- 
sistible, if  wisely  and  faithfully  used,  his  wonderful 
word,  quick  and  powerful,  assisted  by  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  by  his  own  gracious  presence  in  my 
home  and  in  my  heart.  Under  such  circumstances, 
to  refuse  to  receive  the  child,  or  to  return  it  in  dis- 
gust after  it  has  been  received  because  it  begins  to 
develop  depraved  appetites  or  passions,  is  to  reveal 
an  utter  misconception  of  the  true  situation,  a  lack 
of  high  motive  in  the  reception  of  the  child,  or  a 
want  of  faith  in  God's  real  love  and  interest  in  it. 

We  do  not  claim  that  the  discovery  of  God's  rela- 
tion to  these  outcast  children  can  put  into  them 
what  nature  may  in  some  instances  have  denied 
them.  That  is,  it  will  not  give  them  natural  talent, 
if  they  do  not  inherit  it.  It  will  not  make  a  dull 
and  unpromising  child  bright.  It  will  not  make  a 
homely  child  beautiful,  or  change  red  hair  to  brown, 
or  hazel  eyes  to  blue.  It  will  not  transform  the 
fault-finding,  or  ugly,  or  fretful,  or  selfish,  or  sinister 
natures  into  models  of  innocence  and  sweetness. 
To  receive  a  child  in  the  name  of  Christ  does  not 


66  THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 

mean  that  such  a  child  will  be  made  over  to  order, 
and  have  all  its  crookedness  straightened  out.  No 
good  thing  is  cheap,  nor  can  be  procured  for  a  song. 
**  There  is  no  excellence  without  great  labor." 

Naturally  we  all  shrink  from  hard  work,  espe- 
cially if  it  involves  sacrifice  or  suffering  or  large 
responsibility.  If  we  could  take  one  of  these  home- 
less ones  into  our  family,  and  have  only  a  play 
spell,  balmy  breezes  and  a  smooth  sea,  or  an  easy 
down  grade,  we  would  not  hesitate  a  moment.  But 
when  there  stares  us  in  the  face  the  practical  hu- 
man side,  an  up-hill  tug,  great  care  and  trouble,  and 
anxiety,  and  patience,  and  time,  and  money,  and  a 
weight  of  responsibility,  then  we  shrink  back. 

But  this  is  our  supreme  mistake.  The  largest 
reward  comes  through  the  greatest  suffering,  exal- 
tation through  humiliation  ;  the  crown  lies  beneath 
the  cross  ;  the  sweetest  scent  comes  from  the 
crushed  flower  ;  the  most  beautiful  rose  is  plucked 
from  the  thorn  bush  ;  the  hotter  the  furnace  the 
purer  the  gold  ;  crucifixion  before  exaltation. 

But  how  difficult  for  us  to  realize  this,  one  of 
God's  greatest  thoughts,  and  himself  the  grandest 
illustration  of  it.  We  have  already  learned  that 
the  saved  are  to  occupy  the  very  highest  place. 
But  see  what  it  costs  !  A  mere  word  of  command 
could  bring  an  angel  into  being,  or  create  a  world 
of  beauty  and  people  it  with  intelligences.  But  to 
lift  a  soul  out  of  its  ruin  and  up  into  childhood,  oh, 
what  an  infinite  sacrifice  on  the  part  of  God  !  A 
mighty  universe  could  be  brought  into  being  and 


THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME  67 

filled  with  beauty  and  divinity  at  a  cheaper  price 
than  it  costs  to  bring  one  son  unto  glory. 

It  costs  us  comparatively  nothing  to  secure  a 
servant — the  payment  of  a  little  coin,  a  paltry  pit- 
tance. But  to  secure  a  son,  a  child,  oh,  what  anx- 
ious hours  and  days  and  months  and  years  !  What 
travail  of  soul  and  body  before  the  child  is  born 
into  the  world  !  And  then  what  years  of  care,  of 
mingled  joy  and  sorrow  ;  what  anxiety,  what  yearn- 
ing of  soul,  what  suspense,  what  hopes  and  fears  ! 
Think  of  the  time  bestowed  in  the  rearing  and  train- 
ing of  one  child,  and  the  money  spent.  Oh,  it  costs 
something  to  secure  a  child  ! 

But  what  is  the  cost  of  the  sowing  compared  with 
the  final  harvest,  if  your  child  is  saved  ?  What  are 
a  few  years  of  suffering  compared  with  an  eternity 
of  bliss  and  honor  and  glory  ? 

In  this  little  treatise,  we  are  trying  to  take  God's 
side,  and  ask  families  to  receive  the  homeless  little 
one  as  their  own  child,  not  as  a  servant.  They, 
perhaps,  are  in  need  of  a  servant,  and  have  gone 
to  the  almshouse,  or  some  "orphanage,"  or  "chil- 
dren's aid  society,"  and  asked  for  a  boy  or  girl  old 
enough  to  serve  them.  And  what  have  they  se- 
cured ?  Just  what  they  asked  for  ;  a  servant,  a 
temporary  good,  possibly.  But  their  soul  has  not 
been  enriched  by  the  process,  heaven  has  not  been 
consulted,  the  future  not  considered  ;  they  have 
given  nothing  to  God,  have  made  no  sacrifice. 

We  come  to  urge  that  such  families  make  a  great 
mistake  in  asking  for  a  servant.     We  come  to  say 


68 


THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 


that  there  is  a  jewel  in  that  abandoned  child,  a  rare 
opportunity  of  securing  riches  and  glory  and  honor 
and  joy  unending. 

But  it  will  cost  something,  some  fellowship  with 
Christ's  sufferings  and  death  ;  it  will  cost  time  and 


As  Received 


In  His  Adopted  Home 
A  Little  Later 


money  and  patience,  and  wisdom  and  grace  ;  it  will 
cost  many  a  "heartache"  ;  it  will  cost  periods  of 
disappointment  and  discouragement  and  almost  of 
despair.  But,  oh,  what  has  been  secured  ?  A  child, 
a  child  for  time  and  for  eternity  !  More,  a  prince  of 
the  realm,  and  that  realm  the  mighty  universe  !     A 


THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME  69 

king  and  a  priest  unto  God  !  Wiiat  has  been  se- 
cured ?  The  Master's  presence  in  the  heart  and 
life.  ''For  whosoever  shall  receive  one  such  little 
child  in  my  name,  rcceiveth  me.'"  And  the  Master's 
final  benediction,  '*  Ye  have  done  it  unto  me." 

3.  But  let  us  note  a  third  consideration,  the  wages 
God  offers  me  if  I  receive  this  little  waif :  **  receiv- 
eth  me,"  I  get  the  Christ  !  The  highest  wages  in 
the  gift  of  the  universe  !  He  does  not  offer  me  two 
dollars  per  week  board  money.  He  does  not  hold 
out  as  an  inducement  the  little  service  this  child 
can  render  me  as  a  servant.  He  simply  offers  me 
himself !  And  suggests  that  in  the  final  account- 
ing, he  will  say  to  me,  **  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto 
one  of  the  least  of  these,  ye  did  it  unto  me."  And 
he  offers  me  a  star  in  wy  crozcn! 


THE  CHILDREN'S  HOME  SOCIETY 

LET  it  not  be  imagined  that  the  writer,  because 
personally  interested  in  the  Children's  Home 

Society,  is  filled  with  the  conceit  that  this 
society  has  discovered  God's  secrets  or  is  the  cus- 
todian of  this  ideal  method  in  child  rescue.  We 
frankly  confess  that  we  believe  this  is  God's  plan 
and  therefore  the  ideal  plan,  but  just  as  frankly 
confess  that  the  Children's  Home  Society  falls  far 
short  of  it  in  its  practical,  everyday  experiences. 
The  large  majority  of  the  families  that  receive  its 
children  are  as  yet  evidently  governed  chiefly  by 
selfish  and  mercenary  motives,  so  much  so  that  the 
agents  of  this  society  have  to  be  constantly  on  the 
alert  lest  the  best  interests  of  the  children  be  neg- 
lected. And  this  is  one  reason  why  this  booklet 
is  written  and  is  needed — to  lift  the  standard  higher, 
educate  the  people  by  holding  up  God's  ideal. 

Nevertheless,  the  Children's  Home  Society  has 
a  most  remarkable  history,  a  history  that  very 
clearly  stamps  it  as  from  God.  It  originated  in 
Illinois  twenty-two  years  ago  with  the  rescue  of 
one  beautiful  baby  girl  from  an  almshouse  and 
placing  it  in  a  Christian  family  for  adoption.  It 
now   has   twenty-six   separate  State  organizations 

70 


THE  CHILDREN'S  HOME   SOCIETY 


71 


that  are  doing  work  in  thirty  different  States  of  the 
Union.  It  has  already  cared  for  more  than  twenty- 
five  thousand  children  and  is  receiving  at  the  rate 
of  about  five  thousand  homeless  children  each  year, 


making  it  the  largest  child-saving  agency  in  our 
country  if  not  in  the  world.  And  these  twenty- 
five  thousand  children  have  been  placed  in  care- 
fully selected  Christian  homes,  not  as  boarders  or 
as  servants  but  as  members  of  the  household  and 


72  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

enjoying  all  the  social,  educational,  and  religious 
privileges  granted  to  an  own  child.  In  fact,  nearly 
one-half  of  them  all  have  been  legally  adopted, 
while  those  not  adopted  are  under  the  constant 
watchcare  of  the  society  by  means  of  a  very  simple 
and  yet  very  complete  and  efficient  system,  a  local 
advisory  board  in  every  town  and  separate  com- 
munity in  each  State  where  organized,  and  district 
superintendents,  from  two  to  ten  of  them  in  each 
State,  according  to  the  size  of  the  State,  who  give 
their  whole  time  to  the  v/ork,  first,  of  investigating 
personally  and  thoroughly  each  family  in  their  dis- 
trict who  make  application  for  a  child,  and  then 
regularly  visiting  each  child  placed  in  their  district, 
removing  the  child  if  a  mistal<e  is  discovered  in  its 
placement  or  encouraging  and  helping  with  kindly 
advice,  etc. 

And  while  our  plans  and  methods  are  yet  in  their 
formative  state  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  appli- 
cations that  come  to  us  for  children  are  still  prompted 
by  narrow  and  selfish  and  in  too  many  cases  by 
sordid  and  mercenary  motives,  yet  with  great  grati- 
tude to  God  we  are  able  to  point  to  a  few  genuine 
examples. 

The  following  incident,  picture  and  all,  is  clipped 
from  our  little  paper,  "  Homes  for  the  Homeless," 
under  date  of  October,  1900: 

One  of  the  most  interesting  items  of  the  summer  has  been 
the  apparently  genuine  conversion  of  one  of  our  little  girls, 
only  nine  years  old,  and  who  has  been  in  the  care  of  the  society 
over  four  years,  giving  us  an  immense  amount  of  anxiety. 


THE   CHILDREN'S   HOME   SOCIETY 


73 


We  have  placed  her  in  five  different  families,  three  of  these 
during  the  past  year,  but  in  every  case  she  was  returned  as 
unmanageable.  She  had  grown  to  be  saucy  and  independent 
and  apparently  reckless  of  the  consequences  of  her  unruly 
ways,  it  would  be  impossible  to  give  in  a  fev/  words  any 
idea  of  the  variety  and  character  or  the  problems  an  earnest 
Christian  mother 
would  fi  n  d  herself 
facing  in  the  man- 
a  g  e  m  e  n  t  of  that 
child. 

On  the  very  day 
that  the  word  came 
from  the  fifth  family 
to  come  and  take  her 
away  we  received  a 
letter  from  a  conse- 
crated Christian 
w  Oman  who  four 
years  ago  had  taken 
this  girl's  next  older 
brother  and  has  led 
him  to  Christ  and 
made  out  of  him  a 
boy  that  almost  any 
family  in  the  State 
could  be  proud  of. 
The  substance  o  f 
the  letter  was  that, 

after  thinking  about  the  matter  for  some  time,  she  had  de- 
cided to  consecrate  her  life  to  the  work  of  leading  that  refractory 
girl  to  Christ. 

Our  eyes  moistened  upon  reading  that  letter.  We  lost  no 
time  in  getting  this  perplexing  problem  into  her  new  home, 
little  dreaming  that  the  Lord  would  so  speedily  show  his  ap- 
proval. A  work  that  this  earnest  woman  had  figured  on  re- 
quiring years  of  patience  and  great  heart  burden  has  suddenly 


74  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

(in  about  one  month)  been  crowned  with  so  marvelous  a 
transformation  that  the  child  has  become  the  joy  of  the 
whole  household.  Instead  of  a  burden  and  a  care,  a  "  pest" 
to  be  endured  for  Christ's  sake,  she  has  become  a  blessing 
and  a  joy.  How  speedily,  sometimes,  the  Lord  turns  our 
hardest  crosses  into  our  greatest  treasures  ! 

And  already  the  Lord  is  using  this  interesting  incident  in 
encouraging  other  families  to  receive  incorrigible  boys  and 
girls  for  the  purpose  of  leading  them  to  Christ.  When  this 
class  of  Christian  families  is  multiplied  throughout  the 
country  one  of  the  most  difficult  social  problems  of  the  age 
will  be  in  a  fair  way  of  settlement,  the  disposition  to  be  made 
of  the  hundreds  and  thousands  of  our  youth  who  are  on  the 
way  or  already  in  the  reform  school. 

This  was  over  four  years  ago.  It  may  be  in 
place  to  say  that  while  this  girl  is  still  a  child  with 
all  the  buoyancy  and  life  and  sometimes  thought- 
lessness of  the  child  nature,  she  is  regarded  as  a 
genuine  Christian,  a  thoroughly  transformed  child, 
with  a  promising  future  if  the  foster  mother,  in 
her  poverty,  can  give  the  child  the  training  and 
schooling  necessary  to  secure  best  results. 

The  following  is  clipped  from  a  recent  number 
of  "The  Children's  Friend,"  the  organ  of  the 
Children's  Home  Society  of  South  Dakota  : 

Some  years  ago  a  lady  with  children  of  her  own  came  to 
the  home  after  one  of  our  little  ones  and  her  heart  went  out 
toward  a  little  blind  child.  After  she  was  in  her  home  for  a 
time  she  took  her  East  for  treatment.  This  she  did  three 
times,  and  at  last  had  the  gratification  of  seeing  her  restored 
to  sight,  so  that  she  is  able  now  to  attend  the  public  school. 
This,  of  course,  was  a  heavy  expense,  but  she  did  it  for 
Christ's  sake,  who  said,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of 


THE  CHILDREN'S  HOME  SOCIETY  75 

the  least  of  these  ye  did  it  unto  me."  But  that  is  not  all. 
The  foster  parents  now  write  for  adoption  papers  so  that  the 
child  may  have  equal  property  rights  with  their  other  chil- 
dren. And  yet  blatant  demagogues  will  say  that  putting 
children  in  such  homes  is  farming  them  out  to  make  serfs  of 
them.  In  this  connection  we  want  you  to  read  the  following 
letter  from  a  foster  parent  addressed  to  Brother  Slingerland, 
our  Iowa  superintendent,  and  published  in  the  organ  of  his 
society,  the  "  Children's  Home  Herald  "  : 

Dear  Sir  :  Thinking  it  might  be  of  interest  to  the  society 
and  the  public  in  general  to  know  that  all  children  taken  into 
adoptive  homes  are  not  disappointing  (as  the  mercenary  and 
unthinking  would  have  us  believe),  we  write  to  tell  you  of 
our  experience  now  after  seven  years  with  one  of  the  little 
souls  that  was  adrift  on  the  vast  sea  of  humanity. 

He  came  to  us  after  you  had  placed  him  three  times  in  other 
homes.  He  was  six  years  old,  small  and  delicate,  with  a 
well-developed  case  of  chronic  catarrh.  Well,  we  sized  him 
up  and  said,  "  We  will  raise  him  to  maturity  and  then  he  will 
die  of  tuberculosis."  Not  much  encouragement  from  a  money- 
making  standpoint,  and  we  were  only  in  ordinary  circum- 
stances. But  humanity  said,  "  Here  is  a  little  soul  dependent 
in  every  sense  of  the  word,"  and  if  there  ever  was  a  case  of 
humanity  that  blended  into  real  religion  this  was  one  of  them, 
and,  as  we  had  experienced  and  observed  only  theoretical 
religion,  we  had  a  curiosity  to  tackle  the  real  thing. 

We  took  the  boy,  placed  him  on  a  bread  and  milk  diet  (not 
skim  milk),  and  allowed  him  whatever  else  he  wanted  pro- 
vided it  was  digestible,  but  he  seemed  to  desire  more  than 
anything  else  bread  and  milk.  This  agreed  with  him  and  he 
grew.  We  dressed  him  in  flannels  winter  and  summer  and 
still  do  now.  After  seven  years  we  have  practically  cured 
his  catarrh  and  he  still  uses  a  milk  diet  to  a  great  extent.  No 
patent  on  this  recipe.  Milk  diet,  patience,  and  time  are  the 
ingredients.    So  much  for  the  physical. 

The  child  being  delicate,  we  did  not  start  him  to  school 
until  he  was  seven  years  old.  He  showed  in  the  beginning  a 
desire  for  tools.  When  he  was  given  a  nickel  he  bought  nails 
and  by  degrees  we  bought  him  tools  as  he  demanded  them. 
This  is  his  recreation.  Of  course  he  skates  in  the  winter  time 
and  goes  swimming  in  the  summer  time,  like  other  boys.  He 
goes  to  school,  likes  the  school,  reads  the  daily  paper,  the 


76  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

"  Scientific  American  "  (wliich  is  bought  for  him  exclusively), 
the  "  Youth's  Companion"  (which  is  for  all  children),  and 
books  from  the  public  library. 

He  can  tell  you  the  relative  strength  of  the  world's  navies, 
he  knows  their  ships  by  name,  he  knows  the  special  mechan- 
ism of  the  latest  built  gunboats,  has  wrecked  old  sewing 
machines  and  clocks,  knows  how  they  run  and  why  they  run, 
knows  a  stationary  steam  engine  and  can  name  its  parts  ; 
understands  steam,  its  force,  and  how  it  is  made  ;  knows  the 
chemical  analysis  of  water,  air,  and  several  gases,  and  is 
studying  the  elementary  chemistry.  These,  of  course,  are  not 
school  studies  ;  they  are  studies  on  the  side.  They  were  left 
in  his  way.  If  he  had  an  appetite  for  them  the  affinity  would 
assert  itself.  He  would  read  trash  novels  too,  but  he  and  his 
mother  discuss  them,  and  they  have  already  left  a  bad  taste 
in  his  mouth.  He  does  not  fmd  that  class  of  literature  at 
home.  He  is  very  musical,  has  tune  and  time  well  developed, 
and  has  an  unusually  sweet  voice.  He  is  now  thirteen  years 
of  age,  is  strong  and  healthy,  and  if  he  lives  he  wiirbe  a 
graduate  of  Armour's  School  of  Technology. 

To  say  we  are  privately  and  silently  enjoying  or  receiving 
our  reward  does  not  express  it.  We  put  our  money  in  a 
"  prospect  hole"  of  humanity  and  are  so  far  getting  diamonds 

Yours  truly,  A  FOSTER  PARENT. 

This  is,  of  course,  an  exceptional  case,  and  yet 
who  can  tell  how  many  diamonds  of  exquisite 
beauty  and  inestimable  value  may  be  lying  around 
in  the  slums  or  at  the  bottom  of  the  great  sea  of 
humanity  only  awaiting  some  skillful  diver  to  bring 
them  to  the  surface  and  an  artist  who  knows  how 
to  cleanse  and  polish  them  into  beauty  and  glory  ? 

And  may  we  suggest  still  further  that,  while 
every  child  thus  received  will  not  develop  such 
special  talent  and  so  speedily  prove  a  diamond 
from  the  ''prospect  hole,"  yet  if  the  reasonings 
of  this  treatise  are  correct  you  have  only  to  wait  a 
little  longer  and  be  gifted  a  little  with  the  vision  of 


THE   CHILDREN  S   HOME   SOCIETY 


11 


God  to  see  more  than  diamonds  in  every  child  taken 
out  of  the  "  deeps  "  of  sin  and  depravity  and  trans- 
formed into  a  child  of  God  and  an  heir  of  glory. 
We  will  venture  for  the  sake  of  the  lesson  to  sive 


not    quite    so   promising   as   the 


another   incident 
foregoing. 

A  boy  of  four- 
teen years  h  a  d 
been  in  the  care 
of  the  New  Jer- 
s  e  y  Children's 
Home  Society  for 
a  year  and  a  half, 
and  been  r  e  - 
placed  again  and 
again  until  we 
were  discouraged 
and  had  decided 
that  the  reform 
school  at  James- 
b  u  r  g  was  the 
only  alternative. 
He  was  bad  in  so  many  ways  that  we  had  al- 
most reached  the  conclusion  that  he  was  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  grace  of  God,  at  least  so  far  as 
our  weak  faith  and  our  facilities  as  a  society  were 
concerned.  All  the  workers  of  our  society,  includ- 
ing the  matron  of  our  Receiving  Home  and  the  force 
in  the  central  offke,  had  come  to  agree  with  the 
different  families  that  had  him  on  trial,  that  the 
reform  school    was  the  only  place.     The  superin- 


78  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

tendent  alone  hesitated.  It  occurred  to  him  that 
the  boy  had  never  yet  had  a  first -class,  chance  to  he- 
come  a  Christian.  As  his  surroundings  iiad  all  been 
unfortunate  before  he  came  under  the  care  of  the 
society,  and  the  families  that  had  since  been 
intrusted  with  his  care  had  asked  for  a  boy  old 
enough  to  be  of  service  ;  and  while  they  were  all 
good  Christian  families,  it  was  apparent  that  the 
thought  uppermost  in  their  minds  was  the  service 
he  could  render  them  ;  and  because  he  was  not 
used  to  work,  nor  very  reliable,  had  certain  bad 
habits,  and  was  otherwise  more  trouble  and  expense 
than  he  was  worth,  they  returned  him  to  the  society. 
Not  one  of  them  made  a  special  effort  to  lead  the  poor 
boy  to  Christ,  and  not  one  of  them  had  thought  of 
sacrificing  their  work  or  their  financial  interests  in 
order  to  reform  and  save  him. 

So  before  consenting  to  place  the  boy  in  the 
reform  school,  the  superintendent  went  up  into 
the  northern  section  of  the  State  and  spent  a  Sab- 
bath with  a  consecrated  farmer  who  had  already 
led  one  wild  boy  to  the  Master's  feet.  The  family 
had  no  use  for  the  extra  boy,  at  least  for  the 
winter  ;  but  after  a  full  statement  of  the  case  they 
decided  to  receive  him,  and  did,;V/s/  to  help  save  him. 

The  boy  began  to  improve  right  away,  hi  three 
weeks  the  report  was  **the  boy  is  all  right";  later, 
**  doing  finely";  two  months  later,  "improving 
every  day."  The  superintendent  from  the  very 
first  felt  a  confidence  that  the  boy  would  be  rescued 
and  would  develop  into  a  valuable  manhood.     The 


THE   CHILDREN'S   HOME   SOCIETY  79 

reader  can  therefore  imagine  his  sore  disappoint- 
ment when,  after  six  months  of  improvement  the 
boy  took  it  into  his  head  to  run  away,  and  succeeded 
in  covering  up  his  tracks  so  completely  that  we  have 
never  learned  his  whereabouts.  A  great  many 
earnest  prayers  have  been  offered  for  that  boy  and 
some  good  seed  was  sown  that  may  yet  take  root 
and  bear  fruit  in  the  years  to  come,  though  for  the 
present  we  are  disappointed. 

This  is  an  ideal  case  in  theory,  and  though  its 
practical  results  have  not  yet  developed,  we  have 
given  it  because  it  presents  so  clearly  the  central 
thought  of  this  treatise,  receiving  an  outcast,  un- 
promising child  in  the  name  of  Christ.  We  could 
give  instances  far  more  promising,  for  though  our 
experience  in  child  rescue  is  as  yet  quite  brief,  the 
cases  are  increasing.  In  fact,  we  are  persuaded 
that  this  ideal  conception  is  slowly  but  surely  get- 
ting into  the  thought  of  a  constantly  increasing 
number  of  Christian  families  who  ask  for  children. 
The  facility  with  which  the  Children's  Home 
Society  in  the  different  States  fmds  free  homes  for 
all  classes  and  all  ages  of  children,  without  offer- 
ing board  money  or  other  mercenary  inducements, 
is  simply  marvelous,  considering  the  conditions, 
especially  here  in  the  East.  It  cannot  be  satis- 
factorily accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  there  is  a 
large  number  of  families  without  children,  many  of 
them  longing  for  a  child  to  love  ;  for  this  fact  has 
existed  all  along  in  the  past.  Years  before  the 
Children's  Home  Society  came  into  existence  there 

F 


8o  THE   CHILD   AND   GOD 

were  empty  hearts,  thousands  of  them,  longing  for 
a  child  to  love,  and  there  were  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  children  thrust  into  almshouses,  or  left 
without  care  to  drift  into  the  reform  school  or  into 
the  criminal  ranks  ;  or  if  earnest  Christian  hearts 
were  moved  to  place  these  children  in  Christian 
orphanages,  they  had  to  be  kept  there  until  old 
enough  to  be  of  service  before  these  empty-hearted 
and  desolate  family  homes  were  willing  to  receive 
them.  What  was  the  matter  ?  The  answer  has 
already  been  given  ;  it  was  the  bugbear  of  heredity, 
or  the  caste  prejudice.  These  children  from  the 
almshouse  and  from  the  slums  were  not  counted  as 
the  grade  of  children  to  be  received  into  intelligent 
and  refined  family  circles  as  an  own  child.  It  is  the 
discovery  of  God's  relation  to  such  a  child,  his 
deep  interest  in  it  and  its  exceeding  worth  in  his 
estimation  that  is  rapidly  changing  the  whole  aspect 
of  the  child-saving  problem.  It  is  lifting  the  ban 
that  has  so  long  prohibited  such  unfortunate  chil- 
dren from  the  social  privileges  of  the  average  child, 
undermining  the  caste  prejudice,  and  pulling  down 
every  wall  of  separation.  Now,  not  only  homeless 
children,  but  real  outcasts,  children  filled  with 
unfortunate  heredities,  are  taken  by  parties  who  a 
few  years  ago  would  not  have  entertained  the 
thought  for  any  consideration.  God's  view  of  the 
child  is  gradually  gaining  a  foothold,  not  through 
the  agency  of  the  Children's  Home  Society  alone 
or  chiefly,  but  a  thousand  things  have  conspired 
together  to  bring  about  this  triumph  of  the  truth. 


THE  CHILDREN'S   HOME   SOCIETY 


God  himself  is  coming  to  the  front,  and  this  is  one 
of  the  many  evidences  of  his  stately  steppings. 

At  the  annual  conference  of  the  National  Chil- 
dren's Home 
Society  re- 
cently held  in 
St.  Louis,  Rev. 
Dr.  Hastings 
H.  Hart,  the 
superinte  nd- 
e  n  t  0  f  the 
Children's 
Home  Society 
in  Illinois,  and 
the  recognized 
leader  of  this 
form  of  child- 
rescue  in  our 
country,  stated 
in  a  public  ad- 
dress that  the 
whole  history 
of  child-rescue 
for  the  past 
fifty  years  and 
more  reveals 
God's  hand  with  unmistakable  distinctness  —  a 
constant  evolution,  a  gradual  progression  from  the 
lowest  ideals  to  the  highest.  Especially  from  the 
day  over  fifty  years  ago  when  Mr.  Brace,  now 
of   sainted    memory,   became    possessed   with   the 


82  THE   CHILD   AND   GOD 

idea  that  family  life  instead  of  institutional  life 
was  God's  plan  for  every  child,  and  through  great 
opposition  and  bitter  criticism  at  first,  began  to  ship 
in  carload  lots  the  homeless  children  rescued  from 
the  slums  in  New  York  City  out  to  the  Western 
States  to  be  placed  there  in  family  homes,  without 
much  thought  at  the  beginning  as  to  the  character 
of  the  family  that  received  the  child,  only  so  that 
it  was  a  family,  the  work  and  the  ideals  have  been 
gradually  developing  up  to  the  present  hour.  One 
man  or  one  society  or  institution  has  developed  one 
thought,  another  man  or  institution  another  thought, 
until  we  have  apparently  reached  the  perfect  ideal 
so  far  as  methods  and  machinery  are  concerned. 
Our  great  need  now  is  not  an  improvement  of 
methods  or  increase  of  machinery,  but  the  breath 
of  God  imparting  spiritual  life  and  spiritual  vision 
and  motive,  so  that  Christian  families  in  need  of  a 
child  can  take  God's  view  and  be  controlled  by  his 
high  and  holy  motives.  And  we  fondly  believe  this 
is  coming.  Our  God  is  marching  on.  His  views 
are  bound  to  come  to  the  front  and  completely 
triumph  sooner  or  later.  And  even  now  God  has 
evidently  undertaken  to  encourage  and  to  honor 
any  and  every  child-saving  agency  that  will  raise  a 
high  standard.  Our  experience  has  been  uniformly 
this  :  That  the  more  careful  and  exacting  we  have 
become  in  insisting  upon  thoroughly  Christian 
homes  and  Christian  motives  in  the  reception  of 
the  child,  the  more  God  opens  homes  and  hearts 
for  the  children  we  have  to  place. 


THE   CHILDREN'S   HOME   SOCIETY  83 

Of  course,  we  are  all  human,  and  God  does  not 
ask  nor  expect  us  to  throttle  our  natural  appetites 
and  cravings.  He  gave  John  the  Baptist  to  the  old 
couple  who  had  never  had  a  child,  and  because  they 
recognized  that  boy  as  God-given  and  as  having  a 
\'ery  high  and  glorious  mission,  and  because  they 
had  a  keen  sense  of  grave  responsibilities  in  the 
training  of  that  boy  for  his  high  mission  ;  yet  that 
did  not  interfere  in  any  way,  or  lessen  their  natural 
love  for  their  boy,  rather  they  loved  him  the  more. 
The  higher  his  mission  and  the  more  completely  he 
belonged  to  God  and  to  the  entire  nation,  the  prouder 
they  must  have  been  of  him,  and  the  more  careful  in 
their  training  for  his  high  and  holy  mission. 

So  people  may  be  expected  to  ask  for  children 
because  they  want  a  child  to  love.  A  large  vacant 
place  in  their  hearts  is  demanding  an  object  of 
affection  ;  and  while  that  demand  is  natural  and 
God-given,  this  treatise  is  insisting  that  there  is  a 
still  higher  conception  ;  that  this  child  they  ask  for 
is  of  high  birth,  and  if  led  to  Christ  may  become  a 
"greater  than  John  the  Baptist";  in  fact,  is 
related  to  God,  and  therefore  to  the  throne  of  the 
universe.  And  so  while  they  can  gratify  in  the 
completest  possible  way  their  natural  instincts  and 
cravings  for  a  child  to  love,  they  can  at  the  same 
time  have  that  natural  love  intensified  and  increased 
a  hundred-fold  by  the  knowledge  of  the  high  birth 
and  the  grand  future  God  has  planned  for  that  child, 
//  they  can  at  all  rise  to  the  situation  and  faithfully 
perform  their  duty  in  its  training. 


84  THE  CHILD   AND  GOD 

We  may  also  expect  people  to  keep  on  asking  for 
children  from  mercenary  motives,  or  because  they 
need  a  child  to  help  them  about  their  work.  This 
too  is  natural.  They  have  the  work  ;  it  has  to  be 
done  ;  and  it  is  not  wrong  to  want  a  child  to  help 
to  do  it.  Nor  is  it  a  wrong  to  the  child  to  be  placed 
where  it  will  be  obliged  to  work  and  work  hard. 
Hard  work  and  plenty  of  it  is  often  the  salvation  of 
a  child.  "  The  devil  finds  some  mischief  still  for 
idle  hands  to  do."  Far  more  children  are  spoiled 
by  idleness  than  by  hard  work.  It  is  no  valid 
objection  therefore  to  an  applicant  for  a  child  that 
he  needs  the  child's  help.  We  are  simply  trying 
to  lodge  in  these  good  people's  heart  and  thought 
a  far  higher  conception — that  here  is  a  golden 
opportunity  to  ''kill  two  birds  with  one  stone"; 
that  while  they  are  securing  some  needed  assistance 
in  their  farm  work  or  in  their  household  duties,  they 
at  the  same  time  have  the  high  honor  of  ''enter- 
taining unawares"  more  than  "an  angel,"  and  the 
unspeakable  privilege  of  pleasing  God,  and  accom- 
plishing an  untold  good  for  posterity  and  for  God's 
whole  universe. 

And  one  happy  thing  about  it  is,  that  the  more 
prominently  this  higher  object  is  kept  to  the  front 
in  the  training  and  the  treatment  of  this  child,  the 
larger  returns  will  be  secured  in  the  lower  realm. 
That  is  to  say,  the  boy  that  is  led  to  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  first  and  most  important  move,  and 
then  taught  the  highest  conception  of  obligations  to 
God  and  to  those  around  him  and  to  the  eternal 


THE  CHILDREN'S  HOME  SOCIETY 


85 


world,  is  the  boy  who  will  do  the  best  work  and 
become  the  most  satisfactory  helper  in  every  way. 

Jesus  himself  was  trained  in  his  boyhood  by 
parents  who  had  some  conception  of  his  exalted 
mission  here  on  earth.  And  their  training  of  him 
was  so  success- 
f  u 1  that  at 
twelve  years 
of  age  he  was 
certainly  a  prod- 
igy of  wisdom 
and  understand- 
ing for  a  boy  of 
his  age.  But  this 
special  training 
did  not  interfere 
at  all  with  his 
learning  the  car- 
penter's trade, 
and  finally  be- 
coming, as  we 
are  told,  after 
the  death  of  his 
reputed  father,  the  support  and  comfort  of  his 
mother  and  his  younger  brothers  and  sisters. 

So,  because  a  Christian  farmer  needs  a  boy  to 
assist  him  about  his  farmwork,  this  need  not  stand 
in  the  way  of  his  rising  to  the  sublime  conception 
of  God's  ideal,  and  receiving  that  boy  as  a  sacred 
trust  from  the  Master,  and  during  all  his  stay  on  the 
farm  counting  him  as  a  younger  brother  of  the  great 


Jesus  in  the  Temple 


86  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

King,  destined  to  sit  witli  the  King  upon  his  throne  of 
universal  empire,  and  therefore  making  it  his  supreme 
care  and  highest  privilege  to  so  educate  and  train  that 
boy  as  to  fit  him  for  his  future  high  vocation. 

The  large  majority  of  our  business  men,  and  the 
men  who  stand  at  the  head  both  in  the  Church  and 
in  the  State,  were  raised  on  farms.  Country  life, 
all  things  considered,  is  probably  the  safest  and  the 
best  in  which  to  rear  lawyers  and  preachers  and 
judges  and  senators  and  presidents.  And  so  we 
can  see  no  reason  why  a  farm  shall  not  prove  to  be 
the  very  best  place  here  on  earth  to  train  ''kings" 
and  "priests"  who,  during  the  future  ages,  are  to 
occupy  the  most  prominent  places  in  the  govern- 
ment and  control  of  God's  mighty  universe. 

But  if  a  farmer  comes  to  us  for  a  boy,  with  evi- 
dently only  the  one  mercenary  thought  of  help  on 
his  farm — no  matter  how  good  a  Christian  he  may 
be,  or  how  high  a  place  he  may  occupy  in  the 
church  and  in  the  community — we  are  becoming 
more  and  more  reluctant  to  trust  a  boy  in  his  hands. 
For  we  have  had  this  vision  of  God,  and  feel  sure 
he  has  entrusted  this  boy  to  our  care  to  help  secure 
for  him  his  birthright  and  his  crown  ;  and  we  do 
not  feel  authorized  to  place  him  even  in  the  very 
best  of  homes,  unless  we  have  some  assurance 
that  these  higher  interests  of  the  child  will  be 
carefully  guarded. 

In  saying  this,  however,  for  the  Children's  Home 
Society  and  its  methods,  I  confess  I  can  see  no  spe- 
cial reason  why  every  other  method  of  child-rescue 


THE   CHILDREN'S   HOME   SOCIETY  ^7 

may  not  be  lifted  up  to  the  same  high  plane  and 
seek  only  or  chiefly  the  highest  interests  of  the 
child — and  especially  the  institutions,  the  orphan- 
ages that  are  usually  controlled  by  thoroughly 
Christian  people  and  are  not  hampered  by  State 
control.  Why  may  not  and  why  should  not  every 
Christian  organization  whose  business  it  is  to  care 
for  homeless  and  dependent  children,  fall  into  line 
with  this  new  order  of  things,  and  so  recognize 
God's  interest  in  a  needy  child  and  God's  willing- 
ness to  aid  in  providing  the  best  thing  for  it,  that 
it  can  rise  above  the  **  caste  prejudice"  and  the 
''servant  problem,"  and  say  to  every  selfish  and 
mercenary  applicant  for  a  child,  **  Hands  off !  This 
child  is  altogether  too  important  a  personage  and 
has  altogether  too  valuable  a  future  to  be  entrusted 
to  unholy  hands"?  From  past  experience,  we 
feel  sure  that  no  orphanage  or  other  institution 
would  be  obliged  to  keep  children  until  old  enough 
to  be  of  service  ;  for,  as  a  rule,  the  families  that 
receive  a  child  for  Christ's  sake  are  inclined  to 
take  it  earlier  in  life,  if  possible,  so  as  to  be  sure 
of  a  larger  outcome  and  better  results. 

The  mercenary  applicant  says:  **We  want  a 
child  not  less  than  twelve  years  old  ;  if  still  older, 
so  much  the  better." 

The  applicant  with  this  higher  motive  predomi- 
nant would  say  :  "  The  older  the  child  is,  the  more 
firmly  its  evil  habits  are  rooted,  and  therefore  the 
more  difficult  and  uncertain  the  problem  of  its  sal- 
vation ;  and  if  saved,   its  mental  and  moral,   and 


88 


THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 


possibly  physical  life  are  so  far  wrecked  by  sinful 
associations  and  indulgences  that  we  could  never 
hope  to  build  up  so  beautiful  and  complete  and  useful 
a  life  and  character  as  if  the  child  were  younger." 

The  one  applicant  has  as  a  central  thought  the 
amount  of  work  the  child  will  be  able  to  do  ;  the 
other  applicant,  the  amount  and  quality  of  the 
character  he  may  be  able  to  put  into  the  child. 


A  WOMAN'S  MIRACLE 

John  Green    Brady,  the  governor  of  Alaska,  has  never 
known  the  name  of  his  father  or  mother.     Years  ago,  when 

he  was  a  street  gamin  in  New 
York  City,  selling  newspapers 
and  blacking  shoes,  he  was 
just  "  Brady."  So  the  other 
street  arabs  called  him. 

One  day  with  a  carload  of 
other  waifs  he  was  shipped  out 
West.  Judge  Green,  of  hidiana , 
saw  the  carload  of  boys  and 
told  his  wife  about  the  invoice 
of  youngsters.  She  thought 
they  ought  to  take  one.  "  Very 
well,"  said  the  judge,  "I'll 
pick  out  the  toughest  specimen 
of  the  lot." 
He  selected  "  Brady." 
Now,  in  the  homely  phra- 
seology of  Indiana,  "You 
can't  never  tell  what  may  be- 
come of  a  lousy  calf."  Mrs.  Green  got  hold  of  the  boy's 
heart.  Her  refining  influence  soon  had  its  effect  on  the  young 
barbarian.  He  saw  the  world  would  give  him  a  chance. 
Ambition  spoke  to  him, 


Rev.  J.  G.  Brady 

Governor  of  Alaska 


THE  CHILDREN'S  HOME   SOCIETY 


89 


He  clung  to  the  name  of  "  Brady"  and  left  all  his  old  life 
behind  him.     Henceforth  he  was  John  Green  Brady. 

To  make  a  long  story  short,  the  boy  went  through  the 
grades  and  high  school  at  the  head  of  his  class.  Partly  by 
his  own  efforts  and  aided  partly  by  Judge  Green,  he  went 
through  Yale  college.  Then  he  was  sent  as  a  missionary  to 
Sitka,  Alaska.  He  became  the  best-loved  man  in  that  country, 
and  was  appointed  governor. 


FROM  THE  "FIVE  POINTS" 

One  Sabbath  morning,  in  the  First  M.  E.  Church,  of  St. 
Paul,  Minn.,  after  an  address  by  the  Rev.  E.  P.  Savage, 
superintendent   of    the    Minne- 
sota Children's  Home  Society,      ; — —■' — _,- -_ 

the  pastor  of  the  church  stated 
to  his  people  that  when  a  little 
boy  of  five  years  of  age  he  was 
brought  from  the  slums  of  New 
York  City  with  a  carload  of 
other  boys  and  "  dumped  out  on 
the  prairies  of  Minnesota."  He 
was  now  the  brilliant  and  much- 
loved  pastor  of  one  of  the  larg- 
est churches  in  the  Northwest. 
When  he  had  finished  h  i  s 
statement,  a  fine- looking,  well 
dressed,  gentlemanly  appearing 
stranger  in  the  rear  of  the  congre- 
gation arose  and  asked  the  priv- 
ilege of  making  his  statement. 
"  I   too,"   he  said,   "  like  this 

pastor,  when  a  little  boy,  was  brought  from  the  Five  Points  in 
New  York  City  out  to  the  prairies  of  the  West."  He  was  at 
that  time  governor  of  North  Dakota,  a  man  of  noble  character 
of  brilliant  mind,  and  loved  and  honored  by  all  who  knew  him 

We  insert  these  two  pictures  side  by  side  because,  as  Provi- 
dence would  have  it,  these  two  men,  when  little  abandoned 


Ex-Governor  Burke 
North  Dakota 


90 


GOD  AND  THE   CHILD 


waifs  from  New  York  City,  were  brought  West  on  the  same 
car,  and  occupied  the  same  car  seat  together,  about  forty  years  ago. 
They  were  brought  to  Noblesville,  Indiana,  and  there  placed 
in  separate  families  to  be  trained  for  grandly  successful  lives — 
the  one  through  a  business  career  and  the  law  into  a  governor's 
chair  in  North  Dakota,  and  the  other  through  a  Presbyterian 
pulpit  and  a  missionary  to  the  same  high  position  in  Alaska. 


^ 

.1}^ 

^^'s^'^'^^hH^^^^^B 

IF 

m^. 

^ 

^ 

W^ 

fe. 

President  McKinley  helped  to  organize  the  ''Ohio 
Children's  Home  Society  "  in  1893.  He  was  elected 
its  first  president  and  retained  the  office  until  his 
death.  He  was  deeply  and  personally  interested 
in  its  humane  work,  contributing  freely  both  time 
and  money. 


VI 

THE  GREAT  OBJECTION 

BUT  you  are  thinking,  if  you  do  not  say  it,  ' '  Oh, 
if  I  could  only  know  that  the  results  will  be 
as  you  say,  that  the  child  would  certainly 
be  saved  !  I  would  be  willing — I  know  I  would — 
to  make  almost  any  sacrifice  of  time  or  means  or 
patience.  But  who  can  tell  what  the  outcome  will 
be  ?  Is  it  not  a  dangerous  experiment  to  take  a 
child  whose  antecedents  are  unknown,  or  are 
known  to  be  bad,  possibly  very  bad  ?  May  it  not 
prove  the  taking  of  an  adder  to  my  bosom  ?  It  is 
true  God  loves  that  child  with  an  infinite  love  ; 
but  so  has  he  loved  every  child  that  has  afterward 
gone  to  the  bad.  A  multitude  of  the  best  Chris- 
tian parents  have  failed  in  leading  their  own  chil- 
dren to  Christ,  with  all  their  inherited  good  qualities 
in  their  favor.  What,  assurance  then,  can  I  have 
that  this  child  can  be  certainly  saved,  with  all  its 
inherited  tendencies  against  such  a  consummation?" 
This  is  an  honest  question  that  demands  an 
equally  honest  and  earnest  answer.  A  complete 
answer,  however,  would  require  a  careful  inquiry 
into  the  perplexing  problems  of  heredity,  much  too 
large  a  subject,  and  quite  outside  the  scope  of  this 
little  book. 

91 


92  THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 

A  few  brief  suggestions  must  suffice  : 
I.  You  who  take  an   outcast  child    for  Christ's 
sake,  that  is,  for  the  express  purpose  of  rescuing  it, 
have  greatly  tlie  advantage  of  the  "  multitude  of  the 


best  Christian  parents  "  who  have  failed  to  lead 
their  own  children  to  Christ.  These  '*  best  Chris- 
tian parents  "  have  sadly  failed  at  two  vital  points. 
They  did  not  "  take  "  their  child  for  Christ's 
sake.  It  came  to  them  unsought,  very  likely  un- 
desired.     The  Lord  Jesus  was  not  consulted  or  his 


THE   GREAT  OBJECTION  93 

aid  invoked  in  the  introduction  of  that  little  life 
into  its  eartlily  condition.  You,  on  the  contrary, 
have  taken  this  outcast  child  for  the  express  pur- 
pose of  leading  it  to  Christ  and  securing  for  it  a 
home  with  him  and  with  yourself  in  glory. 

As  Jesus  was  not  consulted  or  honored  in  the  in- 
troduction of  those  children  into  their  home  life,  so 
we  fear  it  is  true  he  has  not  been  consulted,  or  his 
word  carefully  followed  and  honored  in  the  after- 
rearing  and  training  of  those  children.  God's  word 
is  exceedingly  plain  and  explicit  as  to  how  Chris- 
tian parents  should  train  their  children.  There  is 
no  possibility  of  misunderstanding  its  plain  and 
positive  requirements.  But  these  explicit  instruc- 
tions have  been  largely  ignored  by  these  Chris- 
tian families.  The  probabilities  are  that  they  have 
never  so  much  as  read  their  Bibles  once  through 
/or  the  express  purpose  of  finding  out  how  to  train 
up  their  children  so  as  to  lead  them  to  Christ  and 
fit  them  for  heaven. 

hi  the  education  and  training  of  their  children, 
they  have  probably  followed  the  customs  of  society 
around  them  and  left  the  Bible  out  of  the  account. 
They  do,  of  course,  take  their  children  with  them 
to  church  and  send  them  to  Sabbath-school  regu- 
larly ;  and  perhaps  once  a  year,  or  once  in  two  or 
three  years,  under  the  excitement  of  some  special 
evangelistic  services,  they  have  exhibited  a  deep 
personal  interest  in  the  salvation  of  their  children. 
But  all  the  rest  of  the  year  worldly  matters  have 
had   the    right   of   way,   exclusively  so,   possibly, 


94  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

except  two  hours  on  the  Sabbath.  The  result  is 
the  Bible  is  practically  an  unknown  book  to  those 
children,  except  the  brief  and  scattered  lessons  se- 
cured at  the  Sunday-school  ;  and  the  idea  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness  should  be  a 
first  consideration  and  the  all-important  business  of 
life  has  never  been  drilled  into  their  thought  and 
life  by  anything  they  can  see  in  the  life  and  the 
aspirations  of  their  parents. 

You,  on  the  contrary,  having  first  taken  this  out- 
cast child  for  the  express  purpose  of  leading  him  to 
Christ  and  fitting  him  for  heaven,  will  have  that 
purpose  constantly  before  you,  and  will  therefore 
be  looking  out  for  ways  and  means  to  accomplish 
that  purpose  ;  and  if  you  are  wise,  will  be  con- 
stantly and  prayerfully  consulting  your  Bible  for 
pointers  ;  and  thus  securing  wisdom  from  above, 
you  will  be  able  to  "  train  up  your  child  in  the  way 
he  should  go." 

At  these  two  vital  points  these  "  best  Christian 
parents"  have  sadly  failed,  and  therefore  furnish 
reasons  enough  why  their  children  have  not  thus 
far  become  Christians.  We  have  called  these  two 
failures  ''vital  points."  We  do  not  mean  that  those 
parents  have  so  badly  sinned  that  they  can  never 
hope  for  the  salvation  of  their  children.  Those 
children  are  not  at  fault  for  their  parents'  neglect. 
And  God  is  so  deeply  anxious  for  their  salvation, 
that  he  stands  ready  and  waiting  and  anxious  for 
the  parents  to  remove  the  obstacles  that  have  so  far 
prevented  him  from  stretching  out  his  arm  for  their 


THE  GREAT  OBJECTION 


95 


rescue.  Whenever  those  parents  will  humble  them- 
selves before  God  and  repent  ui  dust  and  ashes  for 
their  past  neglect  of  their  children,  and  begin  so 
far  as  possible  to  "  repair  damages,"  and  enter  into 
solemn  covenant  with  God  that  hereafter  they  will 
faithfully  perform  their  duty  toward  their  children, 
as  God's  word  may  point  it  out  to  them,  God  is 
gracious  and  ready  to  forgive,  and  will  remove  their 
sins  as  far  from  them  as  the  east  is  from  the  west, 
and  save  their  children. 

But  up  to  the  present  time  you  have  immensely 
the  advantage  of  those  ''best  Christian  parents," 
so  far  as  effectually  reaching 
your  child  with  gospel  influ- 
ences is  concerned,  in  that 
you  fust  received  him  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  and  since 
receiving  him,  your  great 
aim  has  been  to  secure  his 
salvation. 

2.  Our  second  suggestion 
is  that  there  may  not  be  so 

much  difference  as  you  imagine  between  the  hered- 
itary endowments  of  your,abandoned  child  and  the 
children  of  these  ''best  Christian  parents."  We 
cannot  enter  into  this  discussion,  though  exceed- 
ingly interesting  and  a  wonderful  "eye  opener." 
We  will  briefly  suggest : 

That  those  "best  Christian  parents,"  even  if 
they  were  much  better  than  they  are,  did  not  and 
cannot  transmit  to  their  children  their  regenerated 

G 


96  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

Christian  natures.  They  can  only  transmit  the  '*  old 
Adam,"  not  the  new  creation  in  Christ  Jesus.  And 
the  ''  old  Adam  "  in  them  may  be  about  as  depraved 
and  sensual  and  devilish  as  the  **old  Adam  "  in  the 
parents  of  this  abandoned  child  you  have  received. 

One  of  the  noblest,  sweetest-tempered  and  most 
thoroughly  consecrated  ministers  of  the  gospel  in 
the  State  of  New  Jersey  has  a  son  who  is  a  thor- 
oughly bad  boy,  a  real  reprobate  ;  and  the  good 
man,  when  asked  how  it  was  possible  for  such  an 
earnest  Christian  man  to  be  the  father  of  such  a 
son,  replied,  "  Before  1  was  converted  1  was  as  bad 
as  they  make  them.  Was  called  '  the  young  devil,' 
and  counted  the  worst  boy  and  young  man  in  the 
neighborhood.  My  boy  does  not  inherit  his  father's 
renewed,  regenerated  nature,  but  the  '  old  Adam.'  " 

But  if  the  inherited  tendencies  of  your  child  are 
much  more  degraded  and  sensual,  he  may  not  be 
on  that  account  harder  to  reach  and  subdue  by  the 
grace  of  God  than  are  these  other  more  favored 
children.  That  is  to  say,  if  your  boy  has  a  natu- 
ral tendency  to  lie  or  steal  or  be  foul-mouthed  or 
saucy,  or  exhibit  other  indications  of  the  slum  life 
or  the  depraved  environments  of  his  parents,  these 
other  children  will  probably  inherit  more  of  pride 
and  vanity  and  self-conceit  ;  very  likely  also,  more 
stubbornness  of  will,  and  more  of  the  grasping, 
hoarding  propensity  called  in  the  Bible  *'  covetous- 
ness."  And  these  hereditary  tendencies  are  really 
more  difficult  to  reach  and  restrain  than  the  lower 
tendencies  in  your  boy  simply  because  they  are 


THE  GREAT  OBJECTION  97 

more  respectable  in  the  public  eye.  The  devil  can 
more  easily  persuade  the  children  of  respectable  and 
refined  Christian  parents  that  they  are  good  enough 
ah'eady.  So  that,  all  in  all,  this  poor  outcast  boy 
that  you  have  received  in  the  name  of  Christ  may 
be  no  harder  to  reach  and  subdue  by  the  grace  of 
God  because  of  his  degenerate  birthright.  But 
even  if  he  were  harder  to  reach,  as  we  estimate 
difficulties,  it  is  encouraging  to  know  that  there  is 
nothing  hard  for  God. 

While  our  Lord  Jesus  was  here  in  the  tlesh,  it  did 
not  seem  to  make  any  difference  to  him  whether  the 
person  in  need  of  healing  was  just  beginning  to  lose 
his  eyesight,  or  whether  his  eyeballs  were  wholly 
destroyed  and  their  sockets  empty  ;  whether  the 
patient  was  sick  with  a  little  fever  or  in  the  last 
stages  of  the  loathsome  leprosy  ;  whether  possessed 
of  one  or  a  legion  of  devils — the  same  omnipotent 
word  easily  prevailed.  And  whether  the  needy 
came  to  Jesus  in  his  own  behalf  or  was  brought  to 
him  by  anxious  friends,  the  results  were  always 
the  same.  So  it  is  not  a  question  of  the  amount  or 
degree  or  character  of  the  degraded  and  sensual 
tendencies  with  which  your  child  was  born,  but  a 
question  of  the  amount  and  character  of  your  faith 
in  the  mighty  Deliverer — whether  it  is  an  intelligent 
faith  inspired  and  directed  by  the  conditions  plainly 
set  forth  in  the  word  of  God.  In  other  words, j'o?/r 
success  in  the  rescue  of  your  child  depends  upon  your 
relations  with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  his  word,  and 
not  upon  the  character  of  the  child's  heredities. 


98 


THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 


3.  A  third  suggestion  is  that  it  is  the  word  of  God 
lodged  in  the  heart  of  the  child  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
that  leads  to  his  conversion  and  salvation.  There 
seem  to  be  two  steps  in  this  process  :  first,  the 
child  needs  to  get  acquainted  with  himself,  with 
his  own  need,  that  is,  with  the  situation,  the  real 
facts  regarding  his  life  and  conduct,  his  relation  to 
God  ;  and  then  second,  he  needs  to  become  ac- 
quainted with  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  as  his  Sav- 
iour and  friend  and 
helper.  And  the  word 
of  God  is  the  Spirit's 
chosen  instrument  for 
accomplishing  these  two 
ends. 

The  following  is  the 
substance  of  an  article 
that  has  twice  appeared 
in  our  little  quarterly,  the  organ  of  the  New  Jersey 
Children's  Home  Society,  and  is  placed  here  for  the 
sake  of  the  lesson  so  plainly  set  forth  : 

TRY  THE  BIBLE  ON  HIM 

We  are  often  asked  by  anxious  foster  parents,  "  What  can 
we  do  with  our  boy?  He  will  tell  such  awful  stories.  We 
can't  place  any  dependence  whatever  upon  anything  he  says. 
He  will  make  a  lie  right  up  out  of  '  whole  cloth,'  and  face  us 
down  in  it,  and  stick  to  it." 

This  is  the  one  almost  universal  sin  with  the  larger  boys, 
and  the  girls  too,  that  come  under  our  care.  Stealing,  or  petty 
thieving,  comes  next  in  its  frequency  ;  then,  perhaps,  swear- 
ing ;  and  the  anxious  foster  parents,  after  talking,  reasoning, 


THE   GREAT   OBJECTION  99 

pleading,  and  perhaps  scolding  tlie  unfortunate  child  until 
tired  and  discouraged,  finally  sit  down  and  write  to  the  super- 
intendent as  above. 

This  is  a  very  perplexing  problem,  and  we  have  often  been 
at  our  wit's  ends  to  frame  an  answer  that  would  be  of  any 
practical  value  whatever  to  the  anxious  ones  who  write  us. 

The  difticulty,  of  course,  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  moral 
nature  of  such  child  has  been  neglected  and  remains  unde- 
veloped, and  the  ordinary  methods  of  educating  the  moral 
sense  and  awakening  the  conscience  along  these  special  lines 
have  been  overlooked. 

Evidently,  in  the  plan  of  God,  his  word  is  the  irresistible 
agent  for  arousing  the  conscience  and  quickening  the  moral 
sense,  it  is  represented  as  the  "  sword  of  the  Spirit,"  sharper 
than  any  two-edged  sword,  "  quick  and  powerful  "  "  piercing, 
even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  the  soul  and  the  spirit ;  a  dis- 
cerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart."  It  is  called 
a  "  hammer,"  able  to  break  in  pieces  the  flinty  heart.  Jesus 
says,  "It  is  the  spirit  that  quickeneth  ;  the  flesh  profiteth 
nothing.  The  words  that  I  speak  unto  you,  they  are  spirit 
and  they  are  life."  "  The  flesh  profiteth  nothing."  Our 
words  fall  lifeless  and  powerless,  our  appeals  and  reasonings 
and  pious  talks  profit  nothing  ;  Jesus'  words  only  are  "  spirit 
and  life."  They  take  hold  with  irresistible  power.  They  get 
down  into  the  depths  of  our  nature,  and  take  hold  of  hidden 
forces  that  are  not  reached  by  our  platitudes  and  eloquent 
appeals.  God  himself  calls  our  words  "  chaff,"  as  compared 
with  his,  and  asks,  "  What  is  the  chaff  to  the  wheat?  "  In 
Isa.  5  5 : 1 1  he  says,  "  My  word  .  .  .  shall  not  return  to  me  void, 
but  it  shall  accomplish  that  which  I  please,  and  it  shall  prosper 
in  the  thing  whereto  I  sent  it." 

We  would  suggest,  therefore,  that  instead  of  talking  so 
much  to  the  boy  about  the  folly  and  the  sin  of  lying  or  steal- 
ing or  swearing  or  whatever  his  special  fault  may  be,  and 
appealing  to  his  pride  or  his  ambition  or  his  manhood,  that 
you  simply,  but  earnestly,  "  try  the  Bible  on  him." 

Hunt  up  the  passages,  a  large  number  of  them,  all  through 


100  THE  CHILD  AND   GOD 

the  Bible,  on  the  subject  of  lying,  for  instance,  and  read  them 
to  him,  or  have  him  read  them  carefully  over.  Perhaps  re- 
quire him  to  commit  some  of  them  to  memory,  explaining  the 
hard  words,  if  there  are  such  in  the  passage,  and  so  put  the 
boy  face  io  face  with  God. 

The  following  passages  are  suggested  as  specimens  : 

Lying  forbidden  :  Lev.  19  :  11  ;  Prov.  24  :  28 ;  Eph.  4  :  25  ; 
Col.  3  :  9. 

Hateful  to  God  :  Prov.  6  :  16-19  ;  12  :  22. 

Threatened  with  punishment :  Ps.  5  :  6  ;  52  :  1-6  ;  55  :  23  ; 
Prov.  12  :  19 ;  19  :  5,  9  ;  Rev.  21  :  8,  27. 

Abominable :  Ps.  loi  :  7  ;  119  :  163  ;  120  :  2 ;  Prov.  13  :  5  ; 
19  :  22. 

Characteristic  of  a  fool :  Ps.  58  :  3  ;  Prov.  10  :  18  ;  14  :  5, 
25  ;  Isa.  30  :  9. 

Comes  from  the  devil :  John  8  :  44  ;  Acts  5  :  i-io. 

When  the  boy  finds  out  that  it  is  God  himself  speaking 
directly  to  him  he  will  feel  very  differently  about  the  message 
than  when  you  are  speaking  upon  your  own  authority  or 
experience  to  him. 

And  precisely  the  same  process  for  arousing  the 
conscience  and  quickening  the  moral  sense,  if  in- 
stead of  lying  the  had  habit  in  your  child  should  be 
swearing  or  petty  thieving  or  some  other  habit  that 
is  offensive  to  God  and  ruinous  to  the  soul. 

But  possibly  there  are  no  specially  bad  habits  in 
your  child  to  fight  against  and  eradicate.  The  chief 
difficulty  may  be  simply  carelessness,  neglect,  a 
gay  and  giddy,  self-seeking,  pleasure-loving  life, 
thoughtlessness  as  to  spiritual  interests,  a  lack  of 
appreciation  of  the  wonderful  personal  love  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  But  this  attitude  of  careless- 
ness about  God's  claims  and  the  claims  of  our  own 
spiritual    natures  is  more  offensive  to  God   than 


THE   GREAT  OBJECTION  lOI 

either  of  the  above  bad  habits.  To  forget  God  is 
an  awful  crime  and  is  so  presented  in  the  Bible. 
And  still  a  greater  crime  is  unbelief  or  a  refusal  to 
open  the  door  and  let  Jesus  come  in.  If  Jesus  is 
standing  at  the  door  and  knocking  for  admittance 
to  your  child's  heart  and  life,  that  child  ought  to 
know  it  and  know  it  thoroughly.  He  ought  to  be 
made  to  understand  how  mean  and  selfish  and  de- 
praved a  condition  of  heart  that  could  allow  the 
best  and  noblest  and  most  loving  friend  in  all  the 
universe  to  come  to  his  door  and  knock  for  admit- 
tance and  be  refused  ! 

But  let  all  these  views  of  truth,  this  presentation 
of  the  child's  needs,  his  great  sins,  and  the  won- 
derful love  of  God  as  exhibited  in  Christ  Jesus 
come  to  him  through  the  words  of  Scripture.  Let 
it  be  always  understood  that  it  is  God  who  is  speak- 
ing, not  the  parent  or  the  preacher  or  the  Sunday- 
school  teacher.  Because  God's  words  are  so  dif- 
ferent from  our  words,  as  already  suggested,  God's 
word  proves  to  be  a  sharp  sword  with  two  edges, 
it  not  only  arouses  the  conscience  and  quickens  the 
moral  sense  when  backed  up  by  the  Holy  Spirit, 
it  does  vastly  more.  It  gets  down  into  the  heart 
and  begins  a  new  life  there  ;  hence  is  called  *'seed," 
living  seed  (see  i  Peter  i  :  23  ;  Luke  8:11,  etc.). 

And  do  we  readily  take  in  the  full  meaning  of 
this  statement,  that  God's  word  is  living  seed  ?  If 
you  and  I  were  skillful  we  might  manufacture  a 
kernel  of  corn  that  would  appear  to  be  an  exact 
copy  of  one  of  God's  kernels.     If  we  were  very 


102  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

skillful  we  might  make  it  so  exact  a  copy  that  the 
most  skillful  chemist  could  not  detect  any  differ- 
ence. But  plant  our  production  in  the  best  possible 
soil  and  under  the  best  possible  conditions  and  it 
would  not  grow.  Why  ?  Simply  because  there  is 
no  life  germ  in  our  kernel.  God  puts  a  life  germ  in 
every  kernel  he  makes,  such  that  when  planted 
under  appropriate  conditions  it  grows  and  develops 
a  new  life.  We  cannot  do  that.  Omnipotence 
and  omniscience  alone  can  put  a  life  germ  in  a 
kernel  of  corn. 

So  God's  words  are  strangely  different  from  our 
words.  He  seems  to  have  put  life  germs  in  them, 
life  germs  of  such  character  that  when  planted  in 
the  heart  of  a  child  under  appropriate  conditions 
they  will  grow  there  and  develop  a  new  life,  the 
life  of  God  in  the  human  soul. 

But  the  devil  is  wary.  He  understands  the  char- 
acter of  God's  word,  its  irresistible  and  transform- 
ing power,  and  so  is  on  the  alert,  and  as  soon  as 
the  seed  is  sown  he  catches  it  away  if  possible  ; 
hence  the  help  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  needed  to  do 
two  things  for  that  child  : 

Help  him  to  understand  clearly  the  meaning  of  the 
message  he  reads  ; 

To  prevent  the  devil  from  catching  it  away  until 
it  has  had  time  to  make  its  impression  and  get 
firmly  rooted  as  seed. 

Do  not,  therefore,  content  yourself  with  simply 
requiring  your  child  to  commit  God's  word  to 
memory,  and  then  leave  it  to  the  Holy  Spirit  to  use 


THE   GREAT   OBJECTION  103 

his  own  words  as  a  sharp  two-edged  sword  or  as 
Hving  seed.  The  Holy  Spirit  expects  us  to  co- 
operate with  him  and  work  with  him  just  as  far  as 
we  possibly  can.  Hence  it  is  your  privilege  as  a 
parent  to  sit  down  with  your  child  and  carefully  go 
over  with  him  each  one  of  these  passages  from 
God's  word.  Do  it  very  earnestly  and  thoroughly, 
pray  over  each  separate  passage,  pleading  with  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  your  child's  presence  to  make  the 
meaning  of  this  passage  very  plain  to  him,  to 
"  show  them  "  to  him.  This  will  impress  upon  the 
child  the  great  sacredness  and  the  importance  of 
God's  words  and  thus  aid  the  Holy  Spirit  in  fixing 
them  in  the  memory  and  getting  them  down  into 
the  heart  as  living  seed. 

The  point  we  are  anxious  to  emphasize  is  the 
great  importance,  the  absolute  necessity  of  using 
God's  word  with  your  child  instead  of  your  words, 
God's  thoughts  instead  of  your  thoughts.  One  of 
the  most  common  mistakes  of  Christian  parents  is 
that  they  talk  with  their  children,  talk  very  ear- 
nestly perhaps  and  plead  with  them  very  tenderly, 
and  pray  for  them  as  earnestly  and  tenderly,  but 
forget  to  furnish  any  material  to  work  upon.  It  is 
as  if  a  farmer  should  plow  his  ground  and  harrow  it 
thoroughly  and  put  it  in  the  best  possible  condition 
to  raise  a  crop,  and  then  pray  God  to  give  him  a 
good  harvest,  but  forget  to  sow  any  seed ! 

This  is  what  we  do  so  often.  God's  word  is  the 
living  seed.  There  is  no  possible  genuine  con- 
version apart  from  God's  word.      The  Holy  Spirit 


I04  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

must  have  his  sharp,  two-edged  sword  if  he  would 
reach  the  conscience.  He  must  have  his  living 
seed  if  he  would  begin  a  new  life  in  the  soul,  and 
it  is  our  province  to  furnish  him  that  sword  and  to 
sow  the  seed,  it  is  his  province  to  get  down  into  the 
conscience  and  make  that  sword  cut ;  to  fmd  his  way 
into  the  heart  and  see  that  the  seed  sown  is  lodged 
there  until  it  germinates  and  develops  a  new  life. 

And  the  beauty  of  it  is  that  the  Holy  Spirit  can 
always  be  relied  upon  to  do  his  part  faithfully 
and  successfully,  if  we  do  our  part  faithfully  and 
thoroughly  and  ask  his  help  with  persevering 
earnestness. 

Permit  us  to  urge  still  further  that  you  do  not 
delegate  this  important  duty  and  privilege  to  some 
one  else,  to  the  Sunday-school  teacher  or  even  to 
the  pastor.  Of  course,  you  will  gladly  accept  their 
assistance,  but  in  reaching  your  child  you  have  im- 
mensely the  advantage  of  anybody  else,  for  your 
child  believes  in  you  and  loves  you  and  you  love 
your  child  as  no  other  person  can,  and  love  is  irre- 
sistible. You  can  get  closer  to  your  child  and  be  more 
persistent  and  intent  than  any  other  person  can. 

A  remarkably  suggestive  scene  is  that  recorded  in  2  Kings 
4  :  34-36,  the  restoration  of  the  dead  boy  to  life.  The  prophet 
went  alone  into  the  room  where  the  dead  child  lay,  and  after 
shutting  the  door  and  praying,  "  He  went  up  and  lay  upon 
the  child,  and  put  his  mouth  upon  his  mouth,  and  his  eyes 
upon  his  eyes,  and  his  hands  upon  his  hands :  and  he 
stretched  himself  upon  the  child,  and  the  flesh  of  the  child 
waxed  warm." 

And  this  process  was  repeated  until  "  the  child  opened  his 


THE   GREAT  OBJECTION  105 

eyes"  and  life  was  restored.  Whether  a  designed  type  or 
not,  there  is  in  this  strange  scene  a  beautiful  suggestion  of 
God's  method  of  bringing  dead  souls  to  life,  by  having  a  live 
soul,  one  full  of  the  Christ  life,  come  into  such  close  and  per- 
sistent contact  with  a  dead  soul,  as  that  the  warmth  and  heat 
of  the  one  shall  become  contagious,  and  by  and  by  impart 
itself  to  the  other.  Or  to  express  it  in  another  way,  this  man 
whom  1  wish  to  reach  and  save  has  ears,  but  he  does  not  hear 
God's  warnings  or  his  gracious  promises,  and  so  I  put  my 
ears  into  his  ears'  place  ;  I  hear  for  him.  He  has  eyes,  but 
they  do  not  see  the  dangers  that  beset  him,  or  the  glorious 
things  that  are  offered  him  ;  but  1  see  these  things  clearly, 
and  so  I  become  eyes  to  him.  He  has  a  mouth,  but  it  has 
never  been  opened  in  prayer  to  God,  and  so  I  talk  to  God  in 
his  behalf,  as  he  ought  to  talk  for  himself.  His  heart  is  cold 
and  dead,  and  so  I  put  my  heart  in  his  heart's  place  and  at- 
tempt to  feel  for  him  the  burden  of  soul  and  the  agony  of 
hiterest  that  he  ought  to  feel  for  himself. 

And  thus  I  put  my  soul  in  that  soul's  place  so  closely,  so 
persistently,  that  he  cannot  help  but  catch  my  fire  and  become 
warm  from  my  heat.^ 

And  the  point  we  make  is  that  there  is  no  person 
on  earth  who  can  do  this  for  a  child  quite  as  effect- 
ively and  persistently  as  the  parent,  because  of  the 
natural  relations  that  exist  between  them. 

As  you  value  your  child's  soul,  therefore,  do  not 
delegate  this  unspeakable  privilege  to  anybody  else. 

If  you  have  neglected  this  duty  to  your  child  alto- 
gether in  the  past  you  will  very  likely  shrink  from 
it  now.  A  consciousness  of  neglect  and  of  guilt 
before  God  will  arise.  And  the  more  you  think 
about  it  and  pray  over  it  the  greater  and  darker 
that  guilt  will  appear.     You  have  loved  your  child 

1  "  Every  Creature,"  pp.  46,  47, 


I06  THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 

all  these  years  and  yet  have  committed  the  great 
crime  of  overlooking  and  persistently  ignoring  its 
highest  interests.    You  have  yourself  found  a  friend 


The  Adopted  Girl  Ahead 
Said  a  vulgar  little  girl,  who  was  sneering  at  another, 

In  accents  that  were  very  far  from  mild, 
'You  ain't  got  no  father,  you  ain't  got  no  mother— 
You  ain't  nothin'  but  a  horrid  'dopted  child  ! " 

"  I'm  quite  as  good  as  you,"  came  the  answer  from  the  other, 
"  I  was  carefully  selected  from  a  lot ! 
But  only  look  at  you— your  father  and  your  mother 

Had  to  keep  you  if  they  wanted  to  or  not."  —Selected 

m  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  better  to  you,  more 
precious,  more  valuable  and  desirable  in  every 
way  than  all  other  friends  together,  and  yet  you 


THE  GREAT  OBJECTION  IO7 

liave  never  introduced  tliat  dearest  friend  to  your 
cliild.  On  the  contrary,  tlie  adversary  of  souls, 
the  devil  himself,  has  gotten  possession  of  your 
child  and  is  gradually  leading  him  to  ruin,  and  the 
child  is  blindfolded  and  therefore  quite  unconscious 
of  the  situation,  but  you  can  see.  You  understand 
the  situation  and  yet  have  remained  silent  all  these 
months  and  years  past. 

All  this  consciousness  of  personal  neglect  of  your 
child's  highest  interests  will  naturally  lead  you  to 
shrink  from  the  duty  and  obligation  now,  and  you 
will  be  tempted  to  appeal  to  the  child's  Sunday- 
school  teacher  or  to  the  pastor  or  some  other  person 
to  perform  this  service  for  you.  But  the  very  fact 
of  past  neglect  is  the  reason  why  you  may  not  and 
must  not  shirk.  Your  own  attitude  toward  your 
child  in  the  past  has  very  likely  been  the  main 
reason  why  God  has  not  been  able  as  yet  to  save 
him,  and  if  so,  then  you  are  the  main  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  your  child's  salvation,  and  you  cannot 
shirk  with  safety  to  the  child  ;  besides,  the  richest 
blessing  to  your  own  soul  lies  right  under  this  cross. 
Try  it  and  see. 


CHAPTER  VII 


SOME   PRACTICAL   LESSONS 


1.  Advantages  of  God's  Plan 

(i)  All  other  methods  may  or  may  not  have  re- 
gard to  the  best  interests  of  the  child.  They  are 
liable  to  have  most  prominent  the  interests  of  the 
other  party.  God's  plan  has 
the  future  of  the  child  always 
to  the  front. 

(2)  All  other  methods  are 
liable  to  overlook  God's  rela- 
tion to  the  child  and  his  inter- 
est in  it.  But  this  plan  never. 
In  it  God  is  exalted  and  his 
claims  recognized. 
(3)  Applicants  for  a  child,  under  control  of  any 
of  these  lower  motives,  may  be  unfitted  to  have 
the  care  of  the  child.  A  few  days  before  last 
Christmas  one  of  the  largest  daily  papers  in  Phila- 
delphia gave  quite  a  unique  notice  of  the  work  of 
the  New  Jersey  Children's  Home  Society  by  adver- 
tising the  fact  that  the  said  society  had  babies  to  give 
away  as  ''Christmas  presents."  The  result  was 
a  great  flood  of  applicants,  good,  bad,  and  indiffer- 
ent— for  nearly  all  people  love  children.  However, 
scarcely  one  in  ten  of  these  applicants  measured 
108 


iT'^s^^ 


M 


SOME  PRACTICAL   LESSONS  IO9 

up  to  our  requirements.  We  have  constantly  to 
refuse  applicants  who  possess  one  very  important 
recommendation — tJiey  love  children  dearly. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  have  never  yet  had  reason 
to  refuse  an  application  from  a  person  or  family 
able  to  reach  so  high  a  standard  as  to  receive  a 
child  for  Christ's  sake,  or  for  the  sake  of  the  child's 
future.  Such  families  will  necessarily  be  intelligent 
people,  people  who  have  clear  views  of  God's  in- 
terest in  that  child,  and  of  the  child's  future.  They 
will  be  thoroughly  consecrated  people  who  can  rise 
above  personal  and  selfish  interest  and  worldly  con- 
siderations, and  therefore  can  always  be  counted 
upon  as  first-class  applicants.  No  second-rate  family 
can  reach  so  exalted  a  position. 

(4)  This  plan  secures  God's  presence  and  aid 
in  the  training  and  care  of  the  child,  and  therefore 
the  best  reasons  for  expecting  success  and  happy 
results.  All  other  plans  have  no  such  promise 
or  assurance,  and  therefore  frequently  are  most 
unpleasant  failures. 

(5)  This  plan  therefore  secures  not  only  the  best 
interests  of  the  child,  but  the  best  interests  of  the 
family,  its  spiritual  uplift,  a  consecrated  Christian 
life,  clearer  views  of  God  and  unseen  realities.  At 
the  same  time,  as  already  shown,  it  insures  best 
financial  returns  from  the  child  taken. 

(6)  it  insures  a  better  child  in  every  way.  The 
family's  treatment  of  the  child  will  have  more  of 
tenderness  and  love,  as  well  as  more  of  wisdom 
and  firmness.     This  will   react   upon  the  child  in 


no 


THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 


returned  affection,  in  more  respect  and  reverence. 
The  child  will  become  a  more  thoroughly  reliable 
and  helpful  child,  and  therefore  more  a  comfort  and 
satisfaction  to  the  family. 

(7)  This  plan  is  the  only  one  that  lays  up  treasure 


Four  Brothers,  oi-  doon  iMk'HNTAGE,  Made 

Homeless  by  the  Death  of 

Their  Mother 

m  heaven.  The  child  is  taken  chiefly  for  the  sake 
of  its  future,  and  during  the  countless  ages  of  eter- 
nity, the  family  will  be  reaping  a  harvest  of  joy  and 
happiness,  and  of  gratitude  to  God  that  he  permitted 
them  while  here  to  aid  him  in  securing  one  more 
king  and  priest  for  his  universal  empire. 


SOME   PRACTICAL   LESSONS  III 

2.  Two  Practical  Conclusions 

(i)  All  the  considerations  and  appeals  and  lessons 
in  this  treatise  are  quite  as  applicable  to  own  parents 
as  io  foster  parents  ;  and  if  carefully  read  and  pon- 
dered ought  to  greatly  intensify  parental  love,  and 
lead  to  larger  plans  and  more  intense  anxiety  to 
capture  their  children  for  God,  and  make  of  them 
all  that  it  is  possible  to  make. 

It  is  exceedingly  sad  to  contemplate  the  seeming 
carelessness  of  so  many  Christian  parents  as  to  the 
moral  and  spiritual  environments  of  their  children. 
Treading  on  holy  ground — and  every  step  almost 
leaving  a  mark  upon  the  character  and  life  of  their 
children  that  all  the  after  years  and  ages  cannot 
erase — and  yet  how  thoughtlessly  and  how  care- 
lessly that  step  is  taken  ! 

It  does  seem  to  this  writer  that  if  a  Christian 
parent  could  once  get  a  clear  view  of  the  real  situa- 
tion— that  the  child  committed  to  his  care  furnishes 
the  grandest  mission  and  the  highest  and  the  most 
sacred  and  the  largest  that  can  be  committed  to 
any  intelligent  being  in  God's  universe — such  a 
view  would  at  once  give  an  inspiration  and  furnish 
a  motive  that  would  control  the  whole  life  in  the 
interests  of  that  child's  future. 

And  what  a  sacredness  would  it  give  to  mother- 
hood and  to  fatherhood  !  A  clear  conception  of  God's 
thought  and  God's  interest  in  a  child  will  revolu- 
tionize not  only  our  methods  of  child  training  but  our 
views  of  child  bearing,  and  would  speedily  transform 
this  wicked,  ruined  world  into  a  garden  of  God. 

H 


112  THE  CHILD  AND  GOD 

(2)  Second  practical  conclusion.  If  the  consid- 
erations and  arguments  in  this  little  treatise  are 
correct,  what  grander  work  possible  to  the  church 
of  Christ  to-day  than  a  systematic,  thorough,  and 
persistent  effort  to  reach  every  child  in  the  com- 
munity with  the  gospel  ? 

The  Sunday-school  as  an  institution  is  a  noble 
effort  in  this  direction — the  bringing  of  Bible  in- 
struction within  reach  of  all  the  children.  But  it 
does  not  quite  meet  the  demands ;  in  the  very 
nature  of  the  case  it  cannot. 

As  to  the  children  of  Christian  parents,  the  Sun- 
day-school does  not  reach  God's  ideal.  One  hour 
a  week  out  of  one  hundred  waking  hours  is  not 
quite  God's  plan  for  the  capture  and  control  of  our 
children  in  the  interests  of  their  spiritual  nature. 
It  gives  the  devil  too  long  a  rope  to  have  the  inside 
track  with  the  child  ninety-nine  hours  out  of  every 
one  hundred.  God's  plan  seems  quite  fully  set 
forth  in  Deut.  6  :  6-9 : 

And  these  words,  which  I  command  thee  this 
day,  shall  be  in  thine  heart : 

And  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy 
children,  and  slialt  talk  of  them  when  thou  sit  test  in 
thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and 
when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou  risest  up. 

And  thou  shalt  bind  them  for  a  sign  upon  thine 
hand,  and  they  shall  be  as  frontlets  between  thine 
eyes. 

And  thou  shalt  write  them  upon  the  posts  of  thy 
house,  and  on  thy  gates. 


SOME  PRACTICAL  LESSONS  II3 

That  would  certainly  give  God  the  first  chance 
with  the  child,  give  him  instead  of  the  devil  the 
inside  track  during  the  ninety-nine  waking  hours. 
And  this  obligation  of  the  parent  cannot,  of  course, 
be  cancelled  by  sending  the  child  to  Sunday-school 
one  hour  on  the  Sabbath  day. 

It  does  not  and  cannot  reach  all  the  children. 
Less  than  one-half  of  the  children  of  school  age  in 
our  country  attend  Sunday-school,  and  these  are  in 
the  main  children  of  Christian  parents.  The  chil- 
dren most  in  need  of  religious  instruction  do  not  go 
to  Sunday-school  because  their  ungodly  parents  will 
not  consent.  If  these  are  reached  at  all,  it  must  be 
by  individual,  hand  to  hand  and  heart  to  heart 
work.  We  have  to  '*go  out  into  the  highways  and 
hedges  and  compel  them  to  come  in."  And  in  the 
light  of  the  discussions  in  the  preceding  pages,  if 
such  inconceivable  value  attaches  to  each  one  of 
the  children  in  my  neighborhood,  does  it  not  lay 
upon  me  and  upon  every  Christian  in  the  neigh- 
borhood an  obligation  that  we  cannot  very  well 
evade,  to  bring  all  these  children  so  far  as  possible 
under  saving  influences  ? 

And  we  will  venture  to  suggest  that  the  Chil- 
dren's Home  Society,  where  thoroughly  organized, 
is  already  quite  well  equipped  for  such  an  under- 
taking. We  have  or  are  supposed  to  have  a  local 
board,  as  we  term  it,  a  branch  of  the  State  organ- 
ization, in  each  town  or  separate  community  in 
the  state.  This  local  board  is  made  up  of  a  few  of 
the   best,    most   earnest   Christian   people   in   the 


114  THE   CHILD  AND   GOD 

community  who  love  children.  Their  business  is  to 
report  to  the  State  superintendent  every  case  of  a 
child  as  soon  as  it  comes  to  need,  to  look  up  and 
report  as  to  the  character  and  standing  of  every 
family  in  their  community  that  applies  for  a  child, 
and  when  a  child  is  placed  in  such  family  to  keep 
careful  watch  and  report  to  headquarters,  when  de- 
sired, how  the  child  is  getting  along,  how  treated, 
whether  sent  to  day  school,  to  Sunday-school,  etc. 

As  now  constituted,  this  local  board  waits  until 
the  devil  has  accomplished  all  his  work  of  wreck 
and  ruin  in  a  certain  household,  broken  up  the 
family,  thrown  the  children  out  upon  the  street ; 
then  it  reports  the  sad  facts  to  the  superintendent : 
"  Five  bright  children  are  without  a  home  and 
need  the  society's  care."  And  the  society  steps 
in  to  gather  up  the  broken  fragments  and  do  the 
very  best  it  can  with  these  outcast  children.  It 
finds  large-hearted  strangers  willing  to  take  them 
in  and  provide  them  with  good  Christian  homes. 

Now,  suppose  this  wideawake  and  consecrated 
local  board  could  discover  the  situation  in  that  un- 
fortunate family  before  the  crisis  came,  and  trip  the 
devil  in  the  very  midst  of  his  nefarious  scheme  and 
save  the  household  from  wreck  ?  Possibly  get  hold 
of  the  mother  and  lead  her  to  Christ,  or  even  the 
father  }  It  might  require  a  large  amount  of  earnest, 
persistent,  personal  effort  and  a  mighty  struggle  in 
wrestling  prayer.  But  that  kind  of  exercise  would 
put  new  life  and  strength  and  power  into  that  local 
board,  give  it  plenty  of  thoroughly  Christian  work 


SOME   PRACTICAL   LESSONS  II5 

to  do,  a  work  that  would  be  quite  in  keeping  with 
the  spirit  of  our  mission  as  a  society — to  get  neg- 
lected children  into  Christian  homes.  It  would  be 
a  work  of  prevention ;  and  **  an  ounce  of  prevention 
is  worth  a  pound  of  cure." 

hi  this  way  thousands  of  homes  where  sin  reigns 
and  where  tens  of  thousands  of  innocent  children 
are  fast  going  to  destruction  might  be  changed  into 
Christian  homes,  and  the  parents  patiently  and  lov- 
ingly helped  to  train  all  these  children  for  Christ 
and  for  heaven.  There  would  really  be  no  limit  to 
the  possibilities  of  such  a  work,  for  it  could  be  ex- 
tended until  it  took  in  every  unconverted  family  in 
every  community  in  our  land. 

And  while  such  evangelizing  agency  is,  of  course, 
outside  of  the  scope  and  intent  of  the  Children's 
Home  Society  as  at  present  constituted,  there  is 
certainly  nothing  in  its  constitution  or  in  its  princi- 
ples to  prevent  its  local  boards  from  undertaking 
such  a  work,  if  they  were  willing. 

But  the  Children's  Home  Society  is  as  yet  only 
organized  in  a  portion  of  the  States,  twenty-six  all 
told  with  four  others  as  auxiliary,  and  in  these  thirty 
States  there  are  a  great  many  communities  where 
no  local  boards  exist ;  whereas  the  work  we  have 
suggested  appeals  not  to  any  special  organization  of 
Christian  people  ;  it  appeals  to  all  organizations, 
to  the  church  universal,  and  to  every  individual 
Christian  who  loves  Christ  and  loves  souls  and 
wants  to  do  the  largest  possible  work  in  the 
redemption  of  this  lost  world. 


THE   CHILD   AND   GOD 


Let  a  mothers'  club  be  organized  in  every  com- 
munity,  whose   special    object   shall    be    to    reach 
every  unconverted  mother  and  lead  her  to  Christ, 
and  then  aid  her  by  wise  counsel  and  by  earnest 
and  persistent  prayer  in  training  her  children  in  the 
way  they  should  go.     Let  the  young  people's  soci- 
eties, the  Christian  Endeavor- 
ers,    the    Epworth    Leaguers, 
the    Baptist    Young    People's 
Unions,  the  Andrew  and  Philip 
organizations,  etc.,  undertake 
the    work    of   reaching   every 
child  in  their  respective  com- 
munities old  enough  to  be  led 
to  Christ,  perhaps  secure  the 
names  of  such  children  and  di- 
vide them  up  among  the  work- 
ers, each  Christian  worker  be- 
coming  responsible   for   three 
or   five  or  possibly  ten   such 
children,  according  to  the  cir- 
cumstances and  the  time  at  his 
or  her  disposal.   And  then  hav- 
ing received  such  charge,  let  each  worker  first  of 
all  ''size  it  up,"  that  is,  carefully  and  prayerfully 
study  the  problems  he  has  undertaken  to  solve,  the 
unspeakable  value  of  each  one  of  these  young  im- 
mortals  committed  to  his  care,  God's   interest  in 
each  one  of  them,  his  willingness  to  aid  in  any  ear- 
nest effort  to  reach  them,  the  instrumentalities  he 
has  provided,  the  place  of  the  word,  the  place  of 


SOME   PRACTICAL   LESSONS  II7 

the  Holy  Spirit,  the  place  of  individual  personal 
effort,  and  especially  the  place  of  effectual,  fervent 
prayer.  Then  go  about  the  task  with  confidence 
and  hope,  conferring  frequently  with  the  mothers' 
club,  asking  the  pastor's  advice,  presenting  his  bur- 
dens now  and  then  at  the  weekly  prayer  meeting, 
and  persist  in  this  kind  of  effort  until  the  end  is 
secured  and  the  children  reached.^ 

The  parents  vmv  be  rescued  with  immense  and 
persistent  effort  ;  the  children  can  be  reached  and 
with  far  less  effort.  This  is  therefore  the  grandest, 
most  important  work  of  the  present  century.  And 
how  else  shall  the  world  ever  be  reached  ?  If  the 
children  are  led  to  Christ  and  filled  with  Bible 
truth,  it  would  mean  the  ushering  in  of  the  millen- 
nium, the  beginning  of  the  end  in  the  redemption 
of  this  lost  world. 

^  For  a  somewhat  extended  presentation  of  the  methods  and  value  of  per- 
sonal, individual  work  read  a  little  bool<  just  published,  "Success  in  Soul- 
Winning."  The  Winona  Publishing  Company,  Chicago,  111.  Price,  in 
paper,  25  cents.     For  sale  by  American  Baptist  Publication  Society. 


APPENDIX 

NOTES   ON  THE   ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page  12.  Abandoned  by  mother.  Received  when  three 
months  old  and  placed  the  same  day  in  a  Christian  home- 
nine  years  ago. 

Page  23.  A  Christian  mother  dies,  leaving  four  bright  little 
boys  in  the  care  of  the  father  who  does  his  very  best  to  keep 
his  family  together.  But  obliged  to  be  absent  all  day  at  his 
work,  the  boys,  without  the  mother's  constant  care,  easily 
drift  into  the  street,  and  after  a  year's  experience  the  father 
decides  that  the  best  thing  for  his  boys  is  to  place  them  in 
Christian  families  through  our  agency.  The  youngest  of  these 
four  brothers  is  the  little  boy  at  the  right  in  this  group  of  three. 

The  little  boy  at  the  left,  the  brightest  and  most  promising 
of  the  three,  was  abandoned  by  his  mother  when  a  little  babe, 
the  name  "Freddie"  being  the  only  asset  left  him  by  either 
parent,  whose  very  name  and  place  and  character  are  unknown. 

Page  25.  Of  respectable  parentage  on  both  sides.  Mother 
died,  father  unable  to  care  for  him. 

Page  30.  Born  when  the  political  pot  was  boiling  the  very 
hottest  during  the  first  race  between  Mr.  McKinley  and  Mr. 
Bryan.  As  the  baby  had  no  legal  father  and  was  abandoned 
by  his  mother,  and  had  possible  presidential  timber  in  him,  he 
was  named  after  both  the  candidates  so  as  to  be  sure  to  bear 
the  name  of  a  president. 

Page  53.  The  most  of  us  take  a  deal  of  stock  in  our  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature.  We  would  be  greatly  pleased  to  see 
our  readers  pick  out  from  this  group  of  twelve  the  children  of 
bad  heredities  or  unfortunate  antecedents.  The  results  would 
probably  be  amusing  at  least,  if  not  an  "eye-opener,"  and 
very  likely  upset  many  of  our  theories  of  heredity. 

119 


120  APPENDIX 

The  whole  twelve  have  an  unusual  development  of  the  moral 
organs,  as  the  phrenologists  locate  them — that  is,  the  central 
and  highest  group,  the  middle  top  of  the  head.  Not  one  of  them 
looks  very  dangerous !     And  yet  they  are  all  illegitimate.^ 

Page  60.  Abandoned  by  father,  mother  dead,  released  by 
grandmother.  Now  developing  into  a  beautiful  and  valuable 
young  womanhood. 

Page  63.  Once  homeless ;  now  the  center  and  joy  of  an 
earnest  Christian  home. 

Page  71.  Released  by  mother.  Now  contented  and  happy 
in  a  foster-mother's  love. 

Page  81.  Abandoned  by  a  drunken  father.  Released  by  a 
mother  in  poor  health.  Been  now  nearly  six  years  in  a 
pleasant  country  home. 

Page  92.  Over  nine  years  ago  the  superintendent  received 
an  earnest  letter  from  a  local  board  in  South  Jersey,  stating 
that  a  mother  had  just  lost  a  baby  boy  at  birth.  She  had  lost 
two  others  before  in  the  same  way  and  was  now  almost  over- 
whelmed with  grief.  "  Can  you  possibly  furnish  us  with  a 
baby  boy  for  her?"  The  superintendent  was  obliged  to  reply 
that  we  had  no  baby  boy  in  hand.  The  very  next  day,  how- 
ever, he  visited  a  prominent  town  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
State,  and  as  he  alighted  from  the  train  the  first  man  he  met 
was  the  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  and  the  very 
first  words  he  uttered  were  these  :  "  Say,  Brother  Lamb,  can 
you  find  a  home  for  a  little  baby  bey  just  born  here,  and 
whose  mother  died  a  few  hours  after  its  birth  ? ' 

1  Possibly  some  of  our  readers  have  not  considered  the  fact  that  the 
majority  of  the  mothers  of  illegitimate  children  are  young  girls  of  good 
character  and  of  good  parentage,  who  have  been  betrayed  under  promise  of 
marriage  or  by  over-confidence  and  love,  and  have  spent  nine  months  of  the 
bitterest  repentance  for  their  sin.  Their  whole  moral  nature  has  thus  been 
thoroughly  aroused,  and  so  far  as  it  is  possible  for  mothers  to  do  so,  have 
stamped  an  awakened  moral  sense  upon  their  offspring  which  reveals  itself 
in  an  unusual  development  of  the  moral  organs,  as  noted  above. 

Of  course,  if  the  mother  is  a  loose  character  and  conscienceless,  these 
results  will  not  appear.  But  only  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  illegitimate 
children  who  come  under  our  care  have  lewd  or  characterless  mothers, 
probably  not  more  than  one  in  ten. 


APPENDIX  121 

It  took  but  a  few  days  to  bring  these  two  strange  provi- 
dences togetiier ;  and  the  reception  of  that  baby  boy  by  that 
broken-hearted  mother  is  among  the  memories  that  can  never 
be  forgotten.  Perhaps  two  years  afterward  the  Lord  kindly 
permitted  that  mother  to  give  birth  to  a  healthy  child  of  her 
own  which  appears  at  the  left  of  the  sturdy  boy  now  adopted 
and  installed  as  the  elder  brother  in  that  home. 

Page  95,  Abandoned  by  mother;  now  adopted  in  a  happy 
Christian  home. 

Page  g8.    Once  homeless  ;  now  a  centre  of  sunshine  and  joy. 

Page  108.  A  family  had  lost  the  only  child,  a  daughter 
three  years  old.  The  mother  was  unable  to  be  comforted,  and 
at  the  end  of  the  year  was  gradually  sinking  into  a  physical 
decline.  Her  physician  and  her  husband  urged  her  to  accept 
a  substitute.  This  beautiful  child,  not  quite  two  years  old, 
filled  the  vacant  place  so  completely  that  they  were  ready  to 
adopt  her  a  week  after  her  reception. 

Page  116.  This  boy  came  to  us  through  a  Society  for  the 
Prevention  of  Cruelty  to  Children.  He  is  doing  nicely  in  an 
earnest  Christian  home. 

The  above  taken  together  will  give  a  very  good  idea  of  the 
character  and  quality  of  the  work  now  being  done  in  thirty 
different  States  by  the  Children's  Home  Society. 

M.  T.  L. 


SUCCESS  IN  SOUL  WINNING 

i6mo.     200  pages.     Price^  2^  cents  net 

With  brief  introductions  by  J.  Wilbur  Chapman,  D.  D.,  and 
A.  C.  Dixon,  D.  D. 

"Success  in  Soul  Winning"  is  designed  as  a  companion  to  "Every 
Creature."  "Every  Creature"  presents  chiefly  the  OBLIGATION  to  reach 
every  unreached  soul  ;  "Success  in  Soul  Winning"  the  HOW  to  do  it,  the 
privilege  and  power  of  the  individual  Christian. 

While  perhaps  not  so  original  or  striking  as  "  Every  Creature,"  it  covers 
a  larger  field  and  contains  more  of  a  practical  and  helpful  nature. 

"Calvary  Baptist  Church. 

"  Washington,  D.  C,  February  18,  1905. 
"  I  have  read  'Success  in  Soul  Winning,'  by  the  Rev.  M.  T.  Lamb,  with 
pleasure  and  profit  and  commend  it  to  the  reading  of  those  who  pray  for  the 
coming  of  Christ's  kingdom.  SAMUEL  H.  GREENE." 

"  '  Every  Creature,'  by  the  Rev.  M.  T.  Lamb,  is  now  followed  by  'Success 
in  Soul  Winning,'  the  latter  introduced  by  Drs.  J.  Wilbur  Chapman  and 
A.  C.  Dixon.  To  distribute  these  little  books  freely  among  the  people, 
better  still,  to  use  them  as  texts  for  reading  and  comment  from  night  to 
night,  will  by  the  blessing  of  God  be  among  the  most  mighty  agents  for  arousing 
Christians  to  personal  prayer  and  effort  for  the  unsaved  of  any  helps  knozvn  to 
»«c'."— ALBERT  G.  LawsON,  in  The  Baptist  Commonzoealth,  Philadelphia, 
Dec.  15,  1904. 

"  Dear  Bro.  Lamb  :    Permit  me  to  thank  you  for  your  book,  '  Success  in 
Soul  Winning.'     It  is  a  thought  starter.     The  Lord  give  it  wings  !     I  wish 
your  message  to  pastors   could  be  read  by  every  pastor  in  our  land.     I  en- 
dorse every  line  of  it.  Yours  in  him,  James  A.  FRANCIS." 
(Successor  to  Rev.  A.  J.  Gordon,  of  Boston.) 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Barnes,  who  has  taken  so  deep  an  interest  in  "  Every  Crea- 
ture," ordered  500  copies  of  "Success  in  Soul  Winning "  before  it  was 
written.  Within  a  month  after  the  500  copies  had  been  delivered  to  him  he 
sent  his  check  for  100  additional  copies. 

The  following  are  specimens  of  the  letters  he  is  receiving  from  New  York 
pastors  to  whom  he  has  sent  copies  of  the  book : 

"  It  is  one  of  the  best  volumes  on  soul  winning  I  have  read."— Clayton 
Grinnell,  Baptist  Pastor,  Ossining,  N.  Y. 

"Fellow  pastors  are  talking  about  this  all-important  theme  while  they 
read  and  reread  the  book."— F.  W.  Carter,  McLean,  N.  Y. 

"  I  have  read  the  book  with  a  real  interest  and  profit  and  must  say  that  it 
is  the  best  that  has  come  to  my  notice,  and  I  have  at  least  a  half-dozen  of 
the  best  at  my  elbow.  The  author  is  Scriptural,  suggestive  with  sane,  prac- 
tical suggestions,  and  alwavs  writes  in  a  sweet,  helpful  spirit." — CHESTER 
F.  Ralston,  Pastor  First  Baptist  Church,  Gloversville,  New  York. 


Published  by  the  WINONA  PUBLISHING  COMPANY,  Chicago,  III. 
For  Sale  by  AMERICAN  BAPTIST  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


^®="Any  of  Mr.  Lamb's  books  can  be  secured  at  the  office  of  the   New 
Jersey  Children's  Home  Society,  Trenton,  N.  J. 


The  Mormons  and  Their  Bible 

By  M.  T.  LAMB 

IVith  Introdudorjy  Note  ly  C.  B.  Landis,  Member  of  Congress 
from  Indiana 

Price,  25  cents  net;   postpaid,  30  cents 

pERHAPS  few  Christian  men  have  a  more  intimate 
*■  knowledge  of  Mormon  affairs  than  Mr.  Lamb.  Besides 
spending  several  years  in  Utah,  traveling  all  over  the  territory 
lecturing  daily  to  great  crowds  of  Mormons  against  their  Bible 
—the  "  Book  of  Mormon  "—he  spent  a  year  and  a  half  in  the 
East  preparing  his  material,  reading  and  consulting  personally 
with  the  best  authorities.  The  result  was  a  book  bearing  the 
title  "The  Golden  Bible,"  universally  conceded  to  be  the 
most  effective  blow  ever  delivered  against  the  Mormon  system. 
The  present  volume  is  a  recasting  and  condensing  of  the  origi- 
nal book,  with  a  very  valuable  introductory  Chapter  upon 
"The  Mormon  Problem." 

"  We  have  examined  this  wori<  closely  and  unhesitatingly  commend  it  as 
the  most  forceful  and  useful  treatise  on  Mormonism  that  has  yet  appeared." 
— The  Arkansas  Baptist. 

"  Mormonism  has  not  received  so  severe  a  blow  as  is  dealt  to  it  by  the 
Rev.  M.  T.  Lamb  in  this  volume.  .  .  He  certainly  makes  mince-meat  of  the 
'  Book  of  Mormon,'  "—Julian  Hawthorne,  in  the  New  York  World. 

"  This  book  is  a  help  to  the  great  endeavor  .  .  .  and  under  the  blessing 
of  God  will  help  to  extirpate  the  monster."— New  York  Observer. 

"  Against  the  heart  and  center  of  the  whole  system,  its  right  and  title  and 
revelation,  he  brings  an  assault  whose  deadly  force  must  be  apparent  to  the 
most  ordinary  Mormon  intelligence.  Criticism  has  proved  its  salutary 
power  before,  but  it  was  never  before  brought  to  bear  on  a  better  subject 
than  when  Mr.  Lamb  set  out  to  apply  its  principles  to  the  '  Book  of  Mormon.' 
He  has  done  his  work  thoroughly." — New  York  Independent. 

"  It  Is  one  of  the  most  convincing  exposures  that  has  ever  been  printed  of 
the  clumsy  plagiarisms  on  the  Bible  with  which  the  Mormon  scriptures  are 
filled." — The  San  Francisco  Chronicle. 


AMER*  BAPTIST  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 

J420  Chestnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


KVERY     CrBATURB 

idmo.     94  pages.     Price,  75  cents. 

How  to  reach  the  great  mass  of  the  unreached  in  our  country 
is  evidently  the  largest  problem  now  before  the  church  6\ 
Christ;  and  "  Every  Creature,"  though  a  iittle  book,  is  evi- 
dently contributing  its  mite  in  helping  to  solve  the  problem— 
hence  is  awakening  unusual  and  unexpected  interest. 

The  first  edition  of  3,000  copies  was  exhausted  in  two 
months.  A  second  and  third  edition  were  called  for  within  a 
year. 

Rev.  Dr.  H.  W.  Barnes,  Superintendent  of  Baptist  Missions 
for  the  State  of  New  York,  has  purchased  and  given  away, 
chief] v  to  the  Baptist  pastors  of  the  State,  675  copies.  Rev. 
Dr.  Crumpton,  of  Montgomery,  Ala.,  400  copies.  The 
superintendents  of  New  Hampshire  and  Vermont  have  each 
distributed  100  copies.  A  goodly  number  of  pastors  of  various 
denominations  have  already  o'rdered  from  25  to  100  copies 
each  to  be  distributed  among  their  own  people. 

"  I  said  something  of  its  effect  upon  my  own  heart  and  mind.  How  that 
I'd  begun  it  and  was  so  won  by  it  that  it  refused  to  let  me  put  it  down  until 
I'd  finished  it,  and  that  I  finished  it  upon  mv  knees  in  a  flood  of  tears.  Weil, 
God  bless  it  and  its  faithful  author."— W.  W.  Barker,  Pastor,  Phillips- 
burg,  N.  J. 

"  Have  read  it  with  intense  interest.  As  a  proof  of  my  appreciation  of  it, 
I  have  ordered  loo  copies,  and  will  advertise  and  press  the  sale  of  it.  It  is 
calculated  to  do  immense  good."— J.  M.  PiKE,  editor  "  The  Way  of  Life," 
Columbus,  S.  C. 

"  We  commend  this  book  and  the  class  of  books  to  which  it  belongs  as 
about  the  best  kindling  for  a  revival  that  can  be  used.  Many  who  read  this 
book  will  feel  first  like  falling  upon  their  knees  and  confessing  past  delin- 
quencies and  calling  upon  God  for  grace  for  personal  service,  and  then 
going  out  and  doing  something." — Sunday  School  Work,  Cumberland  Presb., 
Nashville,  Tenn. 

"  Please  accept  my  deepest  gratitude  for  '  Every  Creature.'  I  have  read 
it  again  and  again,  and  the  spirit  of  it  is  getting  hold  of  me.  Oh,  how  far 
short  I  come  to  it  all.  I  am  talking  it  to  my  people  every  night  this  week." — 
F.  H.  Watkins,  Russellville,  Ala. 

"I  beg  you  to  read  and  re-read  the  little  book  until  you  are  saturated 
with  the  truth  it  unfolds.  Then  get  a  few  brethren  together,  read  and  dis- 
cuss it.  Then  introduce  it  in  the  prayer  meeting.  Ask  the  Woman's  and 
Young  People's  Societies  to  take  it  up.  Then  preach  about  it  for  six 
months."— Rev.  Dr.  Crumpton,  to  300  Baptist  pastors  in  Alabama  to  whom 
he  presented  the  book.  

AMERICAN  BAPTIST  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 
1420  Chestnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 


ie844TE.  827 


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Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


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